HCM City scientists and environmentalists are raising the alarm about the obsolete methods being used by many recycling businesses that are harmful to the environment and people's health.
Scattered around the city are shops to whom scavengers sell scrap like paper, metal, plastic, and rubber they buy or collect from garbage dumps. Many of these shops, who have the licence to buy the waste, then carry out recycling activities that are banned in residential areas.
Statistics from the HCM City Recycle Fund show that the city has more than 300 recyclers, mostly located in Districts 6, 8, Binh Tan, Binh Chanh, and Tan Phu.
Binh Chanh District's Pham Van Hai Village is a recycling hotspot with more than 20 businesses specialising in recycling plastic in Hamlet 1 which also has 3,000 households.
All are small businesses using outdated technologies.
Grinding, incineration, and adding chemicals are the main processes they use to recycle plastic, according to officials at the city Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
"Recycled products made from plastic from these enterprises are often of poor quality and harmful to health," Dr. Le Van Khoa, director of the fund, said.
"The city needs policies and funds to help the recycling industry access advanced technologies."
Nguyen Thi Le, a resident of Vinh Loc Street in Hamlet 1, said: "Recycling businesses on the street have treatment systems for neither waste nor emissions."
"I feel sick each time smoke from a nearby recycler's blows into my house."
Dr. Le Hoang Phuong of Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital said: "Furan, a toxic chemical released by plastic recycling mills, is harmful to the environment and health."
"Recycling enterprises must be moved out of residential areas.
He has treated many patients suffering from breathing problems caused by toxic smoke in Tan Phu District, he added.
Despite warnings from doctors and environmentalists, recycling enterprises continue to operate in many residential areas in the city.
"Work never finishes in these enterprises," Mai Thu Ngoc, a resident of Binh Chanh District, said.
"It takes a long time to recycle the heaps of scrap materials seen in many places along National Highway 1 A from Long An Province to Binh Chanh and Binh Tan Districts".