Invisible Warriors: The force behind Viet Nam’s plastic action

In her 74 years, Ms Nguyen Thi Kenh has held several arduous jobs. For decades, she was a railway worker. Later, a vegetable seller. But despite long hours, she never made enough money.

Now, she is one of more than 10,000 informal waste workers in Hanoi collecting plastic waste in the streets.

‘With this job, I can come anytime I want. It's easier to take care of the grandkids, cook, and help them study. So I chose scrap collecting.’

Though the labour of women like her is often invisible, it is essential to Viet Nam’s recycling waste system. The country generates around 1.8 million tonnes of plastic waste, according to Viet Nam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. But the number is likely much higher.

Workers like Ms Nguyen Thi Kenh, most of them women, handle 90% of Viet Nam’s recycled waste. It is only recently, however, that their essential work started to be recognized.

‘I don’t want people to misunderstand or view this as a bad job. It helps keep the environment clean and green,’ explains 59-year-old Ms Nguyen Thi Lanh, another collector who has done this job for over twenty years.

The flexibility to collect and sort in her own time while caring for her family is why she chose to be a scrap collector. Ms Nguyen Thi Lanh’s experience echoes many others’ working in this informal sector.

While the job of a waste worker comes with certain freedoms, there are major challenges, from how it affects workers’ health to financial instability.

VietCycle, a Hanoi-based company, provides informal waste workers, or ‘Green Warriors’, with protective equipment, fire-hazard training and microfinance courses. Through the support of the World Economic Forum's Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP), they have directly reached 3,500 people in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.