Netherlands helps Vietnam’s Can Tho boost marine plastic waste collection

The People’s Committee of Can Tho, a city in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, has approved non-project aid totaling US$122,000 from a Dutch non-profit organization to enhance the collection of marine plastic waste using litter traps and establish a trial recycling system.

The city will pilot the marine waste collection and recycling system funded by the Netherlands’ Clear Rivers on Cai Khe Canal in An Nghiep Ward under Ninh Kieu District until June 2025. 

The program is aimed at improving the plastic waste collection and management system in Can Tho. 

A representative of Clear Rivers said the waste collection system encompasses a litter trap that operates automatically without fuel, collecting waste floating on a river into a bag. 

Clear Rivers staff will clean the trap twice a week, the representative said, adding that the collected plastic waste will be reused sustainably in accordance with a circular economy model. 

The waste will be recycled to produce furniture and construction materials.

The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit environmental engineering organization based in the Netherlands, had previously handed over an automatic trash collection barge to Can Tho City. 

Invented by the organization, the solar-powered barge, which measures some 25 meters long, over eight meters wide, and four meters high, is operating on the Can Tho River.

It collects over 10 metric tons of waste each month.

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