For the past three years, a middle-aged man in central Vietnam’s Quang Ngai Province has run a garbage plant with his own money in an effort to clean up his neighborhood.

Three years ago, Truong Minh, now 49, of Mo Duc District’s Duc Phong Commune, was hugely troubled by the streets throughout his district, which were inundated with stinking heaps of garbage.

“Despite several meetings between the local government and residents to discuss ways to tackle the problem, the situation didn’t improve, and got even worse. It adversely affected our quality of life and threatened our health,” Minh recalled.

In 2010, he decided to take matters into his own hands, reporting his plan to the district board and petitioning for their consent and investment.

However, as a farmer who knew nothing about garbage processing, Minh didn’t receive their support.

Undaunted, he decided to turn his plan into reality using his own money.

He borrowed almost VND600 million (US$28,241), a whopping sum for a poor farmer, from the bank and some relatives.

After three months, his dream of creating a garbage plant came into being.

“I don’t think garbage processing is too difficult. What’s important is knowing how to categorize it and process the different types of waste properly,” Minh shared.

Initially, he asked for only 10,000 (US$0.5) from local households, but few were willing to pay.

Despite losses of some ten million dong a month, Minh was set on keeping his plant going.

He borrowed another VND260 million at a high interest rate, which his family has only recently paid off.

During the sunny season, garbage is dried outside, while during the rainy season, it’s taken into his 2,000m2 garbage reservoir.

After being categorized, certain kinds of garbage that can’t be recycled is burned in a manually operated furnace.

Over the last three years, the plant processes roughly 80m3 of trash each week. During Tet (traditional Lunar New Year), the plant exceeded its capacity, processing 700-800m3 of garbage during the long holiday.

Minh, who is lovingly dubbed “Crazy Minh” by locals, takes pride in the fact that although his plant remains rudimentary, nylon bags aren’t burned, thereby minimizing the emission of toxics into the environment.

All the nylon bags are sold at cheap prices to recycling factories.

Thanks to Minh’s plant, which is the province’s only privately owned garbage processing factory, the local streets are now much cleaner.

Minh has so far received 17 certificates of merit from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and local governments for his deeds.

According to Nguyen Dinh Long, chair of the commune’s People’s Committee, the government currently collects VND10,000 a month from more than 2,500 households, half of the commune’s population, to keep Minh’s plant running.

Minh shared that he’s planning to invest in producing compost from the collected garbage and will use the profits to expand his current plant.

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