Recycling fees in Vietnam higher than in Europe

The associations, which include American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, and Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, said that a recent draft bill on recycling required fees higher than in developed countries.

Vietnam’s recycling fee for aluminum packaging is 1.26 times higher than the average of 14 countries in Western Europe, they said.

The fee for recycling glass is 2.12 times.

The ideal cost should be 30-50% of that in European countries as workers’ salary in Vietnam is only 10% of their counterparts in European countries.

The associations estimate that their combined recycling fee for paper, plastic and metal is at VND6.13 trillion ($257.35 million) annually.

This is unusually high as it does not take into account the profit that recycling companies get from the materials they receive.

Recyclers of aluminum cans, for example, post profits between VND700 billion and 1.29 trillion annually.

It is unreasonable that manufacturers and consumers are paying trillions of dong every year to support recyclers, the associations said.