VietNamNet Bridge – “King of trash” is the nickname of David Duong. The designate is in a sense appropriate since his life has been attached to waste management and treatment. Starting his business and notching up success in the U.S., David Duong is now shuttling back and forth between the States and Vietnam to accelerate the construction of the Green Environmental Technology Park in Long An, the second project in his home country.

"King of trash" David Duong.

David Duong had not changed since our previous meeting about a year ago. Small in stature, yet full of enthusiasm, he is eager to talk for hours about waste treatment, the job he has “inherited” from his father after migrating to the U.S. and now having brought it back to Vietnam. He had two important achievements in 2015, David said. First in line was California Waste Solutions Co. bidding on and being awarded a more than US$1 billion contract for waste collection and recycling in the city of Oakland, California. Next was Vietnam Waste Solutions Co. being granted the license to go ahead with the Green Environmental Technology Park in Long An Province.

The successfully developed Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex in HCMC’s Binh Chanh District has enabled  him to spend US$150 million for the first phase of a waste treatment site covering 1,760 hectares in Long An’s Thu Thua District. The Green Environmental Technology Park will have a capacity of up to 40,000 tons of waste per day. It is designed to process household, hazardous, medical, industrial and electronic wastes, sewage sludge, wastewater and used tires.

David said with an operational lifespan of 75-100 years, this project would be capable of handling waste from HCMC, Long An as well as others in the southern key economic zone. Currently, internal infrastructure is being developed. It is expected that the bridge leading to the project would be completed in the next six months. “In 2016, we will receive the first tons of garbage, firstly from Long An,” said David Duong.

Fears

Asked what his biggest fear in life is, he immediately said, “I’m most afraid that there will be no time to think and to develop what I want to contribute to the society and the homeland.” Technology is constantly changing and the needs are so immediate, he said. If one wastes too much time dealing with the trivial things, he will not have time to learn and explore new things to better develop his projects. The technology of today may become obsolete in a few years, so it is a must to constantly study to bring the latest technology into the new project in Long An, the hometown of his mother.

Garbage is a nightmare of society, giving governments a headache in finding disposal solutions. At present, some 23,000 tons of household waste are collected every day in this southern region. Particularly in HCMC, it is estimated that residents discharge over 7,000 tons of solid waste per day, with 95% collected directly from the households and the rest from roads and public wastebaskets.

An environmental polluter, garbage is also the fear of service industries, including tourism. In mid-June 2015, some travel firms brought up the thorny issue of trash at the seminar held by the Saigon Times. There, industry experts lamented that garbage at tourist destinations was becoming “a tourism dilemma,” making it difficult to develop this industry as visitors hesitate to visit such destinations. Businesses said they were “frustrated with trash,” and if there were no solutions, the tourism industry would lose its visitors.

Garbage is a formidable challenge, but if it was collected and handled properly, leaving no pollution to surface water, groundwater and the air, the environment would be improved, said David Duong. When properly handled recycled waste would become products serving the society.

Dreams

Talking about his plans in 2016, David Duong said he will pay more attention to the Green Environmental Technology Park in Long An. For him, this is a significant project, not only in terms of investment but also in another aspect. That is to let the project go public, turning it into a project of the whole society, while calling for more overseas Vietnamese to join hands, especially in the context of Vietnam joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP).

“What I must do now is to speed up the construction of the project,” said David Duong after receiving financial support from the HCMC Branch of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV). On December 30, 2015, BIDV signed an agreement to lend Vietnam Waste Solutions Co. US$148 million to develop the first phase of this project. In fact, BIDV has provided funding for his waste treatment company since 2005, when David Duong carried out the Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex. BIDV was the sponsor of this US$140-million project, which is now manages 5,000 tons of garbage a day and a capacity of handling 10,000 tons per day.

David Duong said that upon getting the information of HCMC developing compressed-gas bus, he thought of using trash to produce Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) or Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)  for this vehicle. This will reduce emissions into the environment and be a more efficient mode of transport. “Perhaps, the Da Phuoc project will take the lead in this trend, then the new project in Long An. Instead of producing electricity, we may invest in technology for manufacturing of environmentally conscious fuel,” he talked about his intention.

Da Phuoc is chosen because, since its completion and operation in 2007, this complex has handled nearly 10 million tons of trash for HCMC. The municipal government is planning to shut down landfills citywide by 2020 and deliver garbage to Long An. By then, this sanitary landfill will have met its design capacity. With such rubbish volume, the production of a fuel gas becomes feasible. The remaining issue is market demand. “Making useful products to the society is one thing to do, so as to have more income to cover investment costs and to contribute to environmental protection. However, every product must have outlet, so we will study the market demand in the coming time,” said the King of Trash.

However, making revenue with products from waste is far from simple. When developing the Da Phuoc project, he expected earnings from compost, which has a price double the current waste disposal rates. Yet, so far, he has gained almost nothing from this product. The reason is the city has not succeeded with waste separation at source, and all kinds of garbage are still mixed together. He has brought the compost produced here to the U.S. for testing. The result is that such compost has not met the absolute standards for protection of consumers’ health. Currently, the compost produced by this project can only be sold to industrial rubber plantations, rather than being sold en mass to vegetable growers. “We cannot trade off our career and reputation for profits by blindly launching such products into market. It is not right to protect the environment yet offering products potentially harmful to the people. We’d rather take it slow,” he said.

Lately, the issue of waste separation at source has come to life again. The waste collector hope that one day the city will deliver clean organic waste to his facilities. Over the past five years, his compost manufacturing and waste recycling plants worth over US$20 million have been sitting to gather dust. “That’s the difficulty of the investor,” Duong said. “But we also understand the difficulties of the city, so we will continue to help the appropriate city departments in their efforts to exact the necessary change that will enable VWS to meet its environmental mission and the city to succeed in this program.”

Like many other entrepreneurs, the “King of Trash” is busy with his daily tasks. Asked if given the choice, which sports he would play to relax and refresh himself, he immediately responded: golf. He explained golfers had time to relax and leisurely walk on the field. He was envisioning the day he could take a walk on the golf course of Da Phuoc, whose composition is waste processed into soil. If this could happen, not only the “King of Trash” but many people, especially those living near landfills, would also cherish a dream that the existing mountains of garbage will transform into trees, green lawns and playgrounds for the community.

SGT