Recycling waste, spreading green lifestyle

Entrepreneur Tran Van Hieu, Co-founder, Deputy Director of Lagom Vietnam: Recycling waste, spreading green lifestyle

Choosing to process seemingly unrecyclable waste, businessman Tran Van Hieu and the Lagom Vietnam team have spread the green lifestyle to millions of children, thousands of schools, and many businesses and partners across the country.

Solutions to the problem of industrial waste treatment

At the end of December 2023, the green asphalt concrete solution developed by Lagom Vietnam Joint Stock Company and its partners was honored in the top 6 of the Green Consumption Initiative, Plastic Pollution Reduction Contest, organized by the Youth Union of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Vietnam.

This is a pioneering solution to reduce CO2 emissions in the field of traffic construction, towards a circular economy. By regenerating old asphalt concrete pavement and mixing it with new materials at a ratio of 50/50, Lagom Vietnam's green asphalt concrete product helps reduce input materials by half, reduce energy by 25%, and reduce CO2 emissions by 27% compared to using traditional asphalt concrete from stone, sand, and asphalt.

Coming from the construction industry, Mr. Hieu clearly understands that in order to invest in building and forming a road system to keep up with the pace of development, Vietnam will have to spend huge resources. It is estimated that in the next 5 years, Vietnam will need about 5 million tons of asphalt and 100 million tons of stone to invest in building, upgrading and expanding the national road system.

Quarrying for road construction will destroy hundreds of mountains, and the use of asphalt will have negative impacts on the environment. After a period of use, old damaged asphalt concrete roads will become industrial waste, requiring complex and expensive treatment processes.

“Previous countries have faced this problem. In Vietnam, in the next 5-10 years, we will begin to see it very clearly,” the 8x businessman shared.

To solve the problem, Lagom and its partners have proactively researched and studied solutions around the world and adapted them to the situation in Vietnam. The green asphalt concrete solution focuses on the circularity of materials. Specifically, when the old road surface is aging and damaged, it will be scraped and brought to the mixing station to be regenerated into green asphalt concrete, with technical features that are not inferior to new asphalt concrete road surfaces.

Lagom Vietnam's green asphalt concrete solution with a 50% recycling rate has been approved by the Ministry of Transport for pilot testing in a number of projects and is planning to officially put into use. The company and its partners are continuing to research to increase the recycling rate of the product, possibly up to 75%.

“Green asphalt concrete is an inevitable trend that has been chosen by the world. There is no reason why Vietnam should be outside this trend,” Mr. Hieu affirmed.

From milk cartons, Lagom Vietnam combines plastic waste and additives to create tables and chairs to serve the community.

Developing a circular business model

Besides green asphalt concrete, Lagom Vietnam also researches the collection and recycling of packaging such as milk cartons, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, low-value mixed plastic waste...

Established in 2019, Lagom Vietnam builds a business model that creates social impact. The name Lagom comes from the Swedish philosophy of life, which means not too much, not too little, just enough.

Waste is not necessarily a resource. Only when it is sorted at source and recycled properly, can it become a resource, otherwise, waste is a social problem.

- Businessman Tran Van Hieu

“A contented lifestyle helps us live a balanced and happy life. By minimizing unnecessary needs, we also significantly reduce the amount of waste released into the environment,” Mr. Hieu shared about Lagom Vietnam’s operating ideal.

Learning from the failure of previous waste collection projects due to lack of synchronization and frequent disruptions during operation, he and the Lagom Vietnam team have developed a circular business model with 5 components, including: education, communication, policy - source separation - collection, efficient transportation - recycling, proper treatment and application, consumption of recycled products.

The project of classifying, collecting and recycling milk cartons at 1,000 schools in Hanoi - Lagom's initial project has immediately spread its impact widely in society.

Under the propaganda and guidance of Lagom and teachers, after using fresh milk, students will deflate the cartons and neatly put them in collection bags. Every 2 weeks, Lagom will come to the schools to collect them and then transfer them to the warehouse for processing, baling and sending them to the recycling plant. Here, the milk cartons are separated into pulp and aluminum-plastic mixture. The pulp is made into paper, and the aluminum-plastic mixture is recycled into interior and exterior products such as trash cans, tables, chairs, bricks, tiles, etc.

“Waste is not necessarily a resource. Only when it is classified and recycled properly, will it become a resource. Otherwise, waste is a social problem,” Mr. Hieu shared his opinion.

After more than 4 years of implementing the Milk Carton Classification, Collection and Recycling Project, Lagom has promoted and educated environmental awareness, forming the habit of waste classification for more than 1 million students in 2,000 schools across the country. From this success, the company has expanded its operations to many residential communities, supermarkets, offices, industrial parks... through cooperation with large corporations such as Tetra Pak, Nestle, TH, AEON...

To date, Lagom Vietnam has had two waste sorting centers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, along with a system of machinery, equipment, transport vehicles and a team of well-trained staff. All collected data is statistically recorded, synchronized and managed on the Lagom Collect Platform application developed by the unit itself, to ensure accuracy, clarity and transparency, while helping to reduce management costs and reduce the use of paper for recording, printing and reporting.

Waste is processed and made into new products, which are then donated by Lagom and its partners to schools, communities, and public spaces.

In 2022, Lagom Vietnam expanded its production portfolio with the world's first Ecohanger clothes hanger made from recycled milk cartons. Standing out for its luxurious appearance and high durability, Lagom's hanger products were awarded the Innovation Award in Germany and have been used by a number of Vietnamese fashion brands.

Need policy push

Vietnam aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. To support businesses operating in the field of environmental protection, the Government has issued Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP, with incentives on investment capital, taxes, fees and land support. However, according to a representative of Lagom Vietnam, this is not enough for recycling and waste treatment activities to be fully effective. For example, in Lagom's 5-component model, only the 5th component (application and consumption of recycled products) generates revenue, while the other components require businesses to spend costs.

In addition, from the actual implementation of the project, Mr. Hieu realized that many Vietnamese people are still concerned about the safety of recycled products, so they do not want to use them. Therefore, Mr. Hieu hopes that the Government will have policies to encourage the use of recycled products in public places, for example, placing tables, chairs, and trash cans made from recycled materials in parks and schools; using recycled bricks to pave sidewalks, etc.

Lagom Vietnam's green asphalt concrete solution is of interest to many transport infrastructure investors and real estate investors because it is suitable for the green development strategy. However, to be widely applied, it is necessary to have strong and specific support policies from the Government, such as encouraging transport projects to use recycled materials at a certain rate; preferential loans and investment procedures for green asphalt concrete production units; tax incentives for groups of investors following the green development direction, ready to use recycled products...

Only when policies are favorable and demand is large enough, Lagom Vietnam as well as businesses choosing green production solutions will boldly invest to improve production capacity to meet market demand.

“Our partners have accumulated enough materials to produce green asphalt concrete for the next 20-30 years. Many domestic and foreign investors are very interested in this solution. Businesses are in dire need of policy impetus,” Mr. Hieu expressed.

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