Neighborhoods suffer growing number of illegal trash piles

"Everyone only wants their houses to be clean and they don’t care about anyone else’s [houses]," sighed the 75-year-old Hanoian living on the capital’s Doi Can street.

Tho and her family moved into the neighborhood almost 50 years ago. Her neighbors started piling their trash along the wall of the unoccupied house five meters away from her home around 10 years ago. The spot gradually turned into the neighborhood’s unauthorized but now de facto dump.

Tho said smell is extremely bothersome. She feels goosebumps and dizzy every time the wind blows the foul odor her direction.

And the situation gets worse when it rains. Dirty water from the drain near her house rises to knee level, pushing garbage bags from the pile to her house.

"Houses on higher ground are fine, while lower homes [like mine] get flooded with dirty water and trash," she said.

A passer-by throwing her garbage bag at the unauthorized trash pile near Tho’s house on August 17, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Nguyen

Tho’s family and some of her other neighbors have asked people not to pile their garbage at the spot anymore, but it did not work. They spent money making a "No Trash" sign and cleaned the area hoping that would deter people. They even discussed taking turns watching over the place.

"But people sneaked in to dump their trash at night as we could only watch over the spot during the day," Tho said.

The "No Trash" sign was also recently damaged. So, they then paid for another sign saying "Protecting the environment and urban spaces is every citizen’s duty." But that didn’t stop the trash dumpers either.

"The area under the sign is always full of trash, which is very annoying," Tho said. "I don’t want to invite anyone over to my place, even though I live in the heart of the city, because of the garbage."

Pham Thi Lan, a cleaner working at the Hanoi Urban Environment Company, said the trash pile in Tho’s neighborhood is one of many of the city’s illegal trash piles.

According to Lan, her coworkers, local residents, and even authorities have also tried to put a stop to the trash piling, but each time the effect "lasted a few days only."

"I empty the dump three to four times a day, but people instantly go back to throwing trash there the next day," she said.

A foul-smelling unauthorized trash pile on the sidewalk of Chua Lang street in Hanoi’s Dong Da District on August 16, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Nguyen

Thu Phuong, 47, a resident of Nguyen Khang street in Hanoi’s Cau Giay District, moved in 20 years ago and had seen illegal trash piles emerging one after one ever since. She said the dumps continue to exist despite the presence of local authorities’ daily trash collection vans and a legally authorized trash pile nearby. The smell gets so bad sometimes that she has to take her child to a relative’s house to escape the discomfort.

"Some people said I was being dramatic and asked why I did not simply close the door," she said. "But it was honestly unbearable."

She added that she tried various other measures, from clearing out the piles herself and parking her motorbike there as a barrier, to even occupying the spot with tables and chairs. But nothing has even come close to curbing the problem. Things have in fact become more serious as she and her family have been violently scolded by the people who dump their trash in the area.

So, they eventually gave up.

"Our whole family leaves our home for relatives’ houses on days when we cannot put up with the situation."

Surveys conducted by VnExpress showed that unauthorized trash piles are present in every corner of the city. The irony is places that have "No Trash" signs or even barriers surrounding places that have the most garbage.

Another worker at the Hanoi Urban Environment Company said the company and other local authorities have been working together to raise people’s awareness about the importance of only throwing out their trash at designated locations approved by the city.

"But we can only remind them," the worker said. "Whether they use our reminders in their daily lives is another different story.

Unauthorized dumps burden city street cleaners as they have to constantly check and clean newborn dumps. And these sanitation workers are already overworked by the 6,000 tons of trash disposed of daily in the capital city.

People disposing of waste illegally in a neighborhood on Hanoi’s Tan Mai street on August 17, 2023, only one hour after trash collectors had cleared the location. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Nguyen

Residents of an alley on Hanoi’s Tan Mai street have been living with an unauthorized trash dump for many years.

Pham Lan, 40, said it started with a few business owners "placing their trash there temporarily while waiting for trash collection vans to arrive." But other people began adding to the pile and it gradually grew into a small hill of waste half of the size of the alley.

Households close to the unauthorized dump have spent their own money installing a "No Trash" sign and a surveillance camera to catch the illegal litterers red-handed. But both the sign and camera were destroyed by vandals only a few days later.

Local residents reported the case to authorities, but there has not been any response since.

"Unpleasant smells and unsightliness are obvious consequences, but I’ve also seen visitors unfamiliar with the alley trip over the garbage pile and fall to the ground," Lan said. "It’s fortunate no one has been severely hurt."

Dr. Bui Thi An, head of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations, names three main reasons for these unauthorized trash dumps: people’s low awareness about environmental protection, long established habits of disposing of trash wherever convenient, and weak punishments that don’t do enough to deter illegal dumping violations.

She believes the unauthorized trash dumps will only be halted if authorities impose punishments that are strong enough to worry the illicit trash pilers.

In the meantime, people like Tho, Phuong, and Lan will have no other choice but to co-exist with the discomforts caused by the dumps.

"We have tried everything in our ability [but nothing seems to work]," Tho said.