Sources, sinks and solutions for Impacts of Plastics on Coastal Communities in Viet Nam. Really, do not leave a bunch of academics to come up with a catch title.
Anyway, I was part of this winning bid before I'd even started at Heriot-Watt, when my boss-to-be asked if I would put together and lead a work package as part of the £3.4 million proposal for funding from the UK Research and Innovation public funding pot (so, thanks everyone who pays your taxes!).
After a couple of false starts related to the political chaos of the past few years months, we finally got out to Viet Nam to get the party project started.
As for most countries of the world, plastics are a serious problem in Viet Nam. Although increasing demand is a problem we all have to tackle, recycling (the lack of it) and therefore the amount that ends up in the sea, is of great concern for coastal communities in Viet Nam...and should be for all of us as we eat a lot of food that comes from the waters around Viet Nam and other Southeast Asian nations.
There is next to no investment in recycling facilities in Viet Nam although the big cities benefit from an informal economy of plastic pickers who collect plastic and sell it on to larger collectors or recycling plants. But in rural areas and especially close to the sea, discarded plastic eventually breaks down in to microplastics that can be found in fish guts, humans, and every animal in the supply chain in between.
So it's a 3 year project and will contribute only a small part of the solution (Viet Nam's USD 20 billion plastic manufacturing industry is one of the reasons Viet Nam hasn't taken the action against single-use plastic that neighbours such as India have), but partnering with 7 local institutions should ensure that locals at least lead the way on the research and proposed solutions. So for us this was more a trip about relationship building and better understanding the problem, as well as confirming methods and timings....and standing around looking like a boss.
Also, eating well.
And trying really hard to understand how the toilets work.
We also took a trip to visit the main sampling sites for microplastics and meet some of the rural and fishing communities we will be working with.
You can see some of the issues the country faces in terms of plastics and its aquaculture industry, but overall it is a very beautiful country. We got zero time off but at the end of one day we did stop by the beach for a debrief as a team.
Practice what you preach and all that...it's certainly made me much more aware and curious about what happens to the plastics I use and discard, and whether I too can reduce how much I need them. I'll report back!
