We are tackling clean water access & wastewater systems.

Water provides life and everyone deserves access to this invaluable resource. While Vietnam together with large development organizations over the past decades has built strong water access connections to most of the country, most of the country’s municipal water is not deemed safe to drink. Therefore, everyone consumes water through plastic bottles. 

The current unsustainable plastic (PET) consumption is linear, leading to high volumes of plastic waste ending in our landfills, environment, or oceans if uncollected. Furthermore, post-consumer PET is not endlessly recyclable and typically downcycled in Vietnam. On average in Southeast Asia, only 26% of PET is collected while another 26% ends up in landfills which leaves up to 48% leaking into the environment. 

Besides high environmental leakage of PET from water consumption into the environment, many informal or unregistered recyclers in Vietnam do not have proper wastewater treatment at their facilities. This leads to the dumping of wastewater directly into rivers which are not only contaminated but also contain high volumes of microplastics. Solving the wastewater treatment issue for small recyclers and businesses in developing countries will be crucial to saving the region from an environmental disaster.