I love most of the things about living in this country but one thing is something that people who leave the tourist areas are going to notice almost straight away: This country has an absolutely terrible waste-management system. A lot of the litter that you see almost anywhere that isn't where the fancy hotels are, is going to have a ton of garbage all over the place. I have seen the way that a lot of people here just treat any land as if it were a landfill and we have a saying in this country about how "you are never far away from a discarded plastic bag."
They do have garbage collectors that come by on a regular basis but in the end it simply isn't enough or the people just don't have a mindset of putting garbage in the correct place. Also, with larger items the trash collectors wont ever pick it up so there is no point in putting it out by the curb. In these situations your only choice is to burn it, or i guess find a plot of land that doesn't have a fence around it and dump it there.
That truck hasn't moved in months either
What makes this picture particularly sad is that this actually IS in the tourist area. You can see in the top right of the picture there a rather large, sea-view hotel that has around 60 rooms and is quite popular. Yet every time the guests come out the front door they are greeted with a giant pile of garbage across the street that grows every time I walk past it.
Some of this garbage isn't even something that is likely to be moved until someone decided to put a building on this plot of land.
Like this stone for example. This weighs a lot more than a person can carry, perhaps more than 2 people can carry. So this means that trucks must be coming by this spot and just dumping whatever they have in their cargo. Other items are things that are just going to rot and probably house rodents.
Tired of your upholstered furniture and can't find anyone to give it to? Just chuck it in the open plot of land and forget about it!
This would be an eyesore anywhere but this is literally one block from the beach and when the wind blows I'm quite certain that a lot of this loose garbage finds its way to the water and just floats around until eventually some fish mistake it for food and choke to death on it.
Vietnam is not a rich country and I understand that there is only so much that the public services can accomplish. I'm surprised they do as good of a job as they do because as far as I can tell no private owners actually pay for this service. It's just a bit crazy to me that basically any open plot of land is seen as a place to just throw your trash. The city is simultaneously trying to make this area a more and more popular tourist destination when these private trash dumps are all over the place.
I know that if it was me and this was where my vacation was, I wouldn't be very keen on my hotel being across the street from a garbage dump infested with rats.
Reduce.⏬ Reuse.🔁 Recycle♻
I'll have to take a picture of the recycling bins they built here. Within a few months of the introduction of the separated bins people were totally ignoring the rules of the compartments and now they are just trash cans that are far more difficult for people to empty than regular bins are. They'll be overflowing soon.
This is your high level of anxiety about the scattered garbage, right?
You are not alone to worry about a poor waste management system, especially in our place as a developing country.
It's a shame that it even happens in tourist locations that are heavily promoted. It is said again in various places that are not tourist destinations.
Ideally, this requires serious handling from those who are stakeholders and is in line with the development of community culture in managing waste.
The program for reducing the use of plastic bags, separating organic and non-organic waste from households, and recycling waste into useful materials again deserves to be intensified.
This is really sad to see and witness. I hope there will be an ordinance to start a change or improve the waste disposal in there. The people need to be disciplined.
oh i seriously doubt that will happen, what is most likely is that the neighboring hotels will have to eventually pay to have the eyesore cleaned up themselves.
I was about to say this is only going to become a health risk with rodents breeding and God knows what else. Dumping has a cost normally and why these plots of land look so enticing as it is free. We see it here all the time and no one cares.
I don't think anyone really cares here either and I try to limit my level of complaining since it isn't my country. I'm just surprised it is tolerated in an area that they spend so much money to beautify and advertise to tourists.
Congratulations @gabe.radke! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 900 comments.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
It's something I will never get used to here, even in the last beautiful unspoiled wilderness in Cambodia, a national wildlife refuge, and one of the last great forests in SE Asia, tourists from the capital passing through zing their diapers out the window, toss piss bottles, and our neighbors just burn and toss everything in the river.
Crazy thing is their is a giant garbage bin in our village sponsored by the government, and they stopped collecting because nobody was putting anything in it. When I tell my neighbors I simply take a small bag of trash with me each time I go to town and toss it in a bin, they show a face that lets me know that seems like too much effort.
Luckily we only have 6 people upstream from us, so it's not that bad, but I must admit the trash factor played a major role in us trying to live above all other humans in Cambodia. I would rather be above trash than below it at at the end of the day. You should see the look on people's faces when I explain the carcinogens released by burning plastic, "silly foreigner," I know the look. They think I'm lying about the dangers because I simply don't like the smell or sight of it, it's an uphill battle no doubt.
Yeah it's pretty remarkable isn't it? I'm not going to try to tell anyone how to run their country and I realize that people are much poorer over here but I just don't understand that mentality of not caring what the area directly around where you live looks like. There is garbage everywhere and the hotel area does things to try to make it appear as though it isn't like that.
not long ago I went to a beach where all the hotels either didn't exist or haven't opened back up yet since the closures and there was garbage, mostly plastic, just everywhere. It was really disgusting and no wonder nobody uses that beach.
Thankfully here most plastic bottles end up getting recycled for money so that kind of sorts that out but as far as bags or since basically everything comes wrapped in plastic we have a sort of Asian tumbleweed that scoots all over the place. Sometimes during a big storm the wind kicks up little plastic bag tornados.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ