Vietnamese recyclers have difficulty with plastic bottle caps and labels

In the past two years, a number of consumer brands have introduced 100% water bottles made from recycled plastic, but added a note saying “excluding labels and lids”.

“We can only recycle the bottle body,” Mr. Pham Minh Tuan – General Director of Vikohasan Joint Stock Company – said. The reason is because the above three parts are made from three different types of plastic. The bottle body is PET plastic – has the highest value, the bottle cap is made from HDPE – a hard plastic with lower value, and the label is made from PE or PVC plastic.

There are brands with sealed PVC labels that cannot be recycled. If they claim to be recyclable, it is “just for show”, Mr. Tuan told VnExpress. PVC plastic with symbol number 3 is not recommended for recycling due to lack of safety, adding printing ink will be very toxic.

Vikohasan has been involved in recycling PET bottles since 2016, currently its capacity can reach 200 tons per day and night. The output product is recycled PET fiber used in stuffed animals, sofas, blankets – pillows – cushions. Because only PET is recycled, the PE labels of the company’s bottles will be burned. HDPE lids must find another recycler, but it is difficult.

Duy Tan Recycled Plastic Joint Stock Company also faces challenges when processing bottle labels, especially with PVC labels. Not only is it difficult to handle, this type is also difficult to remove. A PET bottle using a PE label when immersed in a separation tank, the PE label will float while the PET bottle body sinks. With bottles labeled with PVC, this label is hidden with the PET body. With the story of bottle caps, this business is one of the few units that can recycle HDPE.

Looking at Vietnam’s recycling businesses in general, Mr. Hoang Duc Vuong – Chairman of the Vietnam Recycled Plastics Association – said recycling capacity is still weak. For many years, plastic has been mainly recycled in craft villages. With PET – the most common plastic with the highest value, there are a number of businesses participating, but not many. With HDPE, the number of recycling businesses like Duy Tan Recycling is very rare.

Packaging design for recycling and reuse is one of the priority tasks implemented under the National Action Program on sustainable production and consumption to 2030 issued four years ago, but currently has not been implemented. There are specific standards for this design.

We talk about circular economy as a general concept but we should start with specific policies, for example regulations on product design, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan – Deputy Secretary General, Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) – said at an event in mid-December.

Europe has issued a directive on ecological design, requiring products to be easy to recycle, save energy, and optimize lifespan. Mr. Tuan said that Vietnam also needs to have regulations on products such as easy classification, disassembly, separation of components when recycling, accompanying materials must have a certain uniformity…, so that the recycling process the easiest way.

Returning from the fifth meeting of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) on a global treaty on plastics, held in Busan (South Korea), Mr. Hoang Thanh Vinh – of the Institute of Strategy Natural Resources and Environmental Policy, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment – said that many Korean PET bottles no longer have labels, helping to prevent this ingredient from being released into the environment.

In Japan, with plastic bottles, users must sort the body, cap and label into separate bags to serve the collection of resources, recyclables and disposal waste. Therefore, the bottle label is designed to make it easy to separate. In Vietnam, the label separation process is being pushed to recyclers.

“We already have a policy of waste classification at source and producer responsibility (EPR), now we need a strong policy on design and standards if we want to promote this recycling industry,” General Director Vikohasan speak.

He also hopes people’s awareness can change. Plastic is not trash but a recyclable resource. When people think plastic is trash, they throw away anything in the house. Recycled materials are contaminated by being mixed with household waste, causing businesses to waste a lot of resources to remove impurities. Even half of plastic bottles have to be thrown away because they do not meet input standards.

“PET bottles are very dirty now. If people change their thinking, they will treat plastic bottles properly. They are not dirty, not trash. Please keep them and give them to a recycler or quality collection unit. Plastic bottles will be fine,” Mr. Tuan said.