The story of a fairly large business owner who spends all day wandering around and investigating garbage dumps and construction waste is not strange to many people at Dong Khe Urban Environment Company (Dong Trieu).
A serendipitous solution from a child's accident
At the end of 2023, I had the opportunity to participate in a Business Café. Here, the leaders of Dong Trieu Town listened to and solved the problems for many construction material manufacturing enterprises that were in a state of "starvation" for production materials, causing many enterprises to have to reduce work and struggle. However, there were some enterprises that still stood firm, finding their own source of income like the Company. Dong Khe Environmental Sanitation Service Company (Hoang Que, Dong Trieu).
I decided to take the opportunity to learn about the owner and this business. According to the humorous introduction of a town leader: Looking for the business owner? It's not difficult, just go around the garbage dumps and waste in the town... and you'll meet him. I went looking for him and as the introduction said, I had to wait quite a while because Mr. Nguyen Van Luyen was surveying for raw materials for production in construction waste dumps. The first impression of this man over 50 years old was his sincerity, exuding from his stout, agile figure with a dark face, stained with the color of wind and rain.
Mr. Luyen said: My business has been producing unburnt bricks and other fields for a long time and has a brand. In the period of 2018-2021, the quarries stopped operating, raw materials were in short supply but imported materials were too expensive, so we only produced at a moderate level. Seeing the elaborate investment chain, 40 workers were at risk of being laid off or laid off. I felt extremely sad.
Mr. Luyen said that his business came to recycling construction and mining waste by chance. His house is in Hoang Que urban area, which is often illegally dumped by people. Many old waste dumps are covered with grass and trees. One time, the neighborhood students were playing and ran towards the waste dump area to hide, accidentally bumped into reinforced concrete waste and stabbed in the leg, seriously injured and had to go to the emergency room.
He immediately thought of a way to eliminate this danger. Through research, Mr. Luyen learned that this type of "waste" is an ideal material for the production of unburnt bricks, replacing sand, stone and other construction materials that are scarce and expensive. Being a skilled and experienced engineer, Mr. Luyen thought of a device to crush and recycle solid construction waste into construction materials, simulating equipment abroad.
Mr. Luyen analyzed: While the price of raw materials is high, we can take advantage of construction waste. In fact, in that construction waste there is enough sand, stone, lime, cement to create hardness, firmness, smoothness when pressing unburnt bricks, can replace thermal power wholesale, crushed stone, which has a roadmap to stop production and has a high price when imported from other provinces. Thus, this is a quite ideal raw material, not only helping to maintain production but also saving 30-40% of the cost.
Mr. Luyen added: As someone who is interested in the field I am investing and producing in, I know that every year the whole country suffers a loss of up to 5% of GDP, equivalent to 10 billion USD due to environmental pollution, mainly due to waste, of which 25-30% is construction waste. If we do a good job of recycling construction waste, Vietnam will save a huge amount of money spent on solid waste treatment as it is now. Therefore, I think that although there are difficulties and hardships ahead, the prospects are quite bright...
Success through... risk
Thanks to his flexibility and creativity, Mr. Luyen has helped businesses and workers through difficult times. Few people know that those innovations that paved the way to success were not without risks. This story must be told from 2022, when his production and business with a scale of more than 40 workers was stable and had a brand, then there was a problem with a shortage of raw materials due to the scarcity and high cost of sand; the locality stopped quarrying for production... The risk of stopping operations and reducing work happened to the factory that was his passion.
In that difficult context, Mr. Luyen decided to pool capital and borrow money to invest in 2 small crushing and screening lines. “This is a re-engineered equipment based on a stone and concrete crushing system with a capacity of 5-10 m3/hour. In fact, this is a very simple job if you have been in the profession,” Mr. Luyen shared.
The investment source of several hundred million to billions of dong for a struggling unit is an asset. While many similar units are facing difficulties and temporarily suspending operations, his somewhat risky decision has helped the Company maintain production and create jobs for workers. He asked the town for permission to collect waste sites; mobilize sources to dump construction "waste". The name of construction "waste" cleaning expert has been associated with him ever since.
This risky move also opened a new path for Mr. Luyen. In mid-2023, Dong Trieu Town pioneered the use of mine waste rock as a landfill material due to a lack of sand and rock sources. Once, by chance, he passed by the landfill area and saw a lot of large rocks left behind by the construction unit because they could not be used for landfill. He came up with the idea of recycling mine waste rock.
After connecting and finding a source of supply, he decided to invest 10-20 billion VND to plan the site, design to increase the function and capacity of the rock crushing system, and process it into landfill materials. After more than half a year of research, running around mechanical workshops in Hung Yen and many places across the country, he successfully ordered a crushing system to process artificial landfill materials. “At that time, in a difficult and tragic situation when many construction material enterprises had to stop production, my investment of tens of billions of VND in a new production line and a factory of nearly 2 hectares was considered too risky and foolish. However, I still had faith,” said Mr. Luyen.
The time to wait for the big project has come. In mid-May 2024, his project was approved by the Provincial People's Committee. The quality of the artificial filling material that he expected was assessed by the authorities as meeting standards, allowing widespread use. Along with that was the joy when the newly completed, well-functioning production line with a capacity of about 1,000 tons/day was transferred, waiting for the day of operation.
One day, I suddenly received a phone call from Mr. Luyen, he excitedly announced the 2 projects he was pursuing: The landfill material project had been approved and licensed by all levels. The new production line was also ready for installation, waiting for the day of operation to produce the first batch of products. The town was also urgently planning separate dumping areas in industrial parks to create conditions for businesses to access the source of "construction waste".
Learning about this issue, Mr. Le Van Do, Vice Chairman of Dong Trieu Town People's Committee said: In the next 1-2 years, the demand for soil, rock, and materials for landfill is very large, up to millions of cubic meters. Finding this alternative source of raw materials will contribute to completely solving the "thirst" for landfill materials. According to the assessment of the Provincial Department of Construction, this product has been tested and evaluated by competent authorities to meet construction standards, not only pioneering in local application, it is very likely that this new source of materials will be widely used throughout the province. The project's prospects are very large.
However, what Mr. Luyen is also waiting for is to be facilitated in collecting construction "waste" to maintain production, jobs for the Company's workers as well as being interested in speeding up the approval process so that the projects can soon come into operation.
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