HƯNG YÊN — Local authorities have set a September 30, 2025, deadline to clean up Minh Khai Village, one of the country’s largest plastic recycling centres, where decades of unregulated waste processing have created an environmental disaster at the heart of the northern province of Hưng Yên.

Minh Khai, located in Như Quỳnh Town, Văn Lâm District, roughly 18km east of Hà Nội, has long been considered the country’s informal ''plastic capital.' 

For years, its residents have made a living by recycling plastic waste from across Việt Nam and even overseas. However, today, the village is also known as a major hotspot of pollution, with an estimated 100,000 tonnes of waste piled up or buried in ponds, canals, and along the community's edges.

Piles of discarded plastic now dominate the landscape. At the village entrance, trash is strewn around signboards and power stations. Nearby roads and open fields serve as dumping grounds, while thick black smoke rises from burning plastic at all hours.

The stench of melting polymer clings to the air.

"The entire village is submerged in a toxic atmosphere," one resident said.

According to the local People’s Committee, around 700 families in Minh Khai are engaged in plastic-related activities - recycling, production and trade.

Each family reportedly processes about three tonnes of plastic per day. Roughly one per cent of that volume, mainly impurities and unusable material, is dumped directly into the surrounding environment. Few facilities are equipped with wastewater treatment systems, and most have no formal fire safety documentation.

Despite the health and environmental hazards, the village’s economy has become increasingly dependent on plastic. Over time, more residents have joined the industry, and plastic recycling has expanded to nearby hamlets.

In Hùng Trì Village, just a few kilometres from Minh Khai, residents have also turned to plastic recycling, repurposing football fields and village roads into open-air sorting and grinding stations.

The raw materials are sourced from industrial zones across northern Việt Nam and imported from other countries. With the expansion of trade, pollution has also spread. Recycling processes often involve soaking and rinsing plastic in large volumes of water before drying and melting, releasing chemical-laden wastewater and fumes into the environment at every stage.

The ecological toll has been significant. According to residents, local groundwater sources have been contaminated, leading to polluted wells and mass fish deaths. Reports of respiratory illnesses, particularly among children, and chronic coughing among the elderly have become more frequent.

"The people here feel helpless watching their children grow up in toxic air, living with dirty water, and eating vegetables grown in soil contaminated with chemicals," said Nguyễn Thị Trang, a woman born and raised in Minh Khai who has since moved away. "Even those who aren’t part of the recycling trade suffer simply because they live here."

The village has become known by some as 'the toxic plastic capital.' But despite more than a decade of complaints and warnings, no strong measures had been taken to stop the degradation, until now.

Vice Chairman of Như Quỳnh People’s Committee, Vũ Đức Đoàn, acknowledged that part of the challenge lies in the fragmented governance of the village.

Minh Khai’s recycling zone is divided into three areas, each managed by a different authority: the town’s People’s Committee oversees the residential zone; the district’s project management board is in charge of Village I; and Company 319 manages Village II.

This division has led to inconsistencies, a lack of coordination, and a vacuum in regulatory enforcement.

"There have been longstanding gaps in environmental protection, tax collection, business registration, and control over inputs and construction in the area," Đoàn said.

He noted that public awareness about environmental and fire safety remains low, while most businesses focus solely on profit, leaving other concerns for local authorities to resolve.

Residents like Nguyễn Văn Long, who lives in the nearby Ecopark urban area, have questioned why the village continues to operate despite persistent pollution and legal breaches.

"How does Minh Khai continue to exist as an 'untouchable fortress' despite open defiance of environmental laws and prolonged pollution?" Long said.

"Who is protecting or enabling this to continue?"

In what is being described as 'the strongest action to date,' the Standing Committee of the Hưng Yên Provincial Party has issued a directive requiring that pollution in Minh Khai be completely resolved by September 30, 2025.

The directive orders relevant agencies and local authorities to develop a relocation plan for all recycling operations, move them out of residential areas, restructure the production zone, and implement regular inspections.

As the deadline approaches, many hope that the case of Minh Khai can mark a turning point in how Việt Nam tackles the environmental costs of rapid, unregulated industrial development. — VNS