RCR trumpets waste plan

illustration photo

ReCycled Refused International Group, one of Britain’s waste treatment leaders, is taking greater steps to plant a giant urban solid waste treatment project in Vietnam.

Local firm Tecin, the group’s (RCR) representative in Vietnam, told VIR that the $3.8 billion project would include 15 urban solid waste facilities in 15 provinces and cities, to be implemented under a public private partnership (PPP) model.

Tecin’s deputy general director Le Trung Truc said that 12 provinces and cities’ authorities had agreed to give locations to 12 facilities under the project. Tecin is also working with authorities  of Haiphong, Nam Dinh and Ha Tinh provinces. “We expect that locations for the facilities in these three localities would be defined by June, this year,” Truc said.

“After that, we will make a detailed report about these facilities for submission to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI). I think it will take one year to process all investment procedures for the whole project. But we expect to commence construction of the first facility this year,” he said.

Last November, RCR trumpeted its plan to implement this behemoth project. Accordingly, it would see 15-20 waste treatment facilities with total treatment capacity of 15 million tonnes of solid waste per year. Discharged gas and waste water standards would be far higher than Vietnam’s required standards.

The facilities, covering  up to five hectares each, would also produce 3.5 million megawatt hours of power annually. It would need five years for all of these facilities to operate smoothly. They are expected  to employ 25,000 workers and help localities not bury 95 per cent of their solid waste.

Besides, RCR would provide 2,700 modern trash collecting lorries for Vietnam, Truc said.

Under this project, local provincial and municipal authorities and related ministries of natural resources and environment, and construction would have seats in the board of directors of RCR’s Vietnam-based corporation.

“Vietnam’s contributions are investment priorities, financial policies and implementation of solid waste provision contracts, and payment for treating and collecting waste, while RCR is in charge of pouring investment, technology and know-how,” Truc said.

RCR also wanted to plant three other PPP projects in Vietnam including a $1.69 billion ethanol manufacturing project, a $2.82 billion project to desalinate sea water with solar energy and a $88.83 million project to destroy and recycle automobile tyres.

Thus, the total investment capital RCR wanted to pour into Vietnam for the four projects would be $9.2 billion.

In a statement sent to VIR, Tecin said that the ethanol manufacturing project, with capacity of 10 million litres of ethanol per year, would include many plants to be constructed in Hung Yen, Thanh Hoa, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Tay Ninh and Long An provinces. “We want to cooperate with some German and Canadian investors in this project. Jatropha, a plant used to manufacture ethanol, is its materials,” Truc said.

Tecin is working with Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue and Ninh Thuan provinces, where natural conditions are ideal for RCR’s project to desalinate sea water with solar energy. This project was designed to annually churn out 4.2 million megawatt hours of power and 72 million cubic metres of fresh water.

Tecin’s statement said that Vietnam’s potential in destroying and recycling automobile tyres was 90,000 tonnes per year. RCR’s project of the type would include five factories in Hanoi,  Danang, Quang Ninh, Dong Nai and Long An. The project was expected to be  implemented by 2015.