The domestic paper industry needs to increase collection and recycling of waste paper generated in offices and homes to reduce costs and improve competitiveness, experts say.
The quantity of waste paper generated in companies, offices, schools and households is very large; however there are no organisations responsible for collecting and classifying them. According to the Paper and Cellulose Industry Institute, 100,000-120,000 tonnes of waste paper can be processed into at least 80,000 tonnes of paper pulp.
Vu Van Cuong, head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department of Light Industry, said only about 25 percent of waste paper in the country is collected to use as raw material for paper production. Most of the domestic waste paper generated is destroyed while the country spends a lot of money to import wastepaper from countries like the US and Japan to serve paper production in the country. Vu Ngoc Bao, Secretary General of the Vietnam Paper Association (VPPA), said that at present, Vietnam does not have policies and guidelines that encourage collection of waste paper for recycling. Vietnam still has not recognised the important role of wastepaper as a source of raw material in production, he added. The efforts made so far are confined to very small programmes; for instance, one calls for teenagers to contribute at least 1 kg of waste paper a month from classrooms. Even in the national development strategy for the paper industry, the Government has emphasised producing paper pulp from wood and makes no specific plan for collecting and recycling waste paper. Most of the collection that does happen is unplanned and carried out by scrap iron dealers. Hanoi-based Viet Tri Company said that last year, the company needed 50,000 tonnes of waste paper in production, but they had to import 20,000 tonnes because of difficulties in sourcing it locally. VPPA has proposed the Government issues policies and regulations encouraging the collection and recycling of waste paper, and implement a national programme of collecting and recycling paper. The Government also needs to increase public awareness about the value of saving and recycling paper in reducing deforestation and environmental pollution.
