No new recycling import licenses Vietnam Prime Minister orders

No new recycling import licenses are to be issued by the Vietnamese Government, following an order from the Prime Minister.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc also said that Government departments must revise all quota-free permits to prevent too much recycled material entering the country.

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The Prime Minister chaired a meeting looking at the situation of scrap imports into Vietnam that has led to containers being abandoned at port and a large volume of waste entering the country following the ban by China.

Scrap metal ban

He also requested that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment consult on potentially banning imports of scrap metal that cause serious environmental issues. However, he recognised that there is demand for scrap paper and plastic within the Vietnamese economy. He said this was economically advantageous for manufacturers, but this should not harm the environment.

The Prime Minister also said that the same ministry should look at which materials had most impact on the environment, and to specify the materials allowed to be imported into Vietnam while overall reducing the types of materials that were permitted (more on this below).

Vietnam will also seek to ban import of materials for further re-export to other countries, as only materials to be used within Vietnam should be imported.

It will also look at whether violations of existing environmental laws have been committed by existing import license holders, and take action against any officials or importers that have been seen to aid breaking the law.

Vietnam must not become a dumping ground the Prime Minister said, and so clear responsibilities would be given to Government departments.

Prosecutions on waste import violations

This would include prosecuting those that had committed environmental violations including investigating those that had sent containers to Vietnam without a recipient. The Ministry of Transport would take responsibility for removing these containers along with the Ministry of Finance, will take responsibility for removing and destroying abandoned waste containers.

As a result of the meeting, the Prime Minister has decided to issue a Directive to ensure all relevant Vietnamese Government Departments are clear on their responsibilities and to make these measures law.

Reducing approved recycling import list

On the day before this meeting, another meeting had been chaired by Environment Minister Tran Hong Ha in which it was proposed that the list of allowed recycling import materials that can be allowed into Vietnam be reduced from 36 commodity codes to 24.

The removed items would be those for which there is no demand from Vietnamese manufacturers or cause particular environmental problems.

However, it is not yet clear what these 12 items would be, although it would appear that paper and plastics grades would remain on the list based on the comments of the Prime Minister at the meeting the day after.

Environment Minister Tran Hong Ha said: “The import of scrap for factories is only recommended for commercial production, high quality products, not just raw processing and re-export.”

The full list of the 36 commodities allowed into Vietnam:

LIST OF SCRAPS ALLOWED FOR IMPORT AS MANUFACTURING MATERIALS

(According to Decision 73/2014/QD-TTg dated 19/12/2014 by the Prime Minister)