Nam Trung turns household waste into organic fertilizer

Nam Trung Commune has an agricultural processing village, a large population, and a large amount of household waste discharged into the environment every day. However, the environment here is always clean and beautiful thanks to the management and operation experience of the Party Committee, the government, and the joint efforts and consensus of the people.

In front of her family's gate, Ms. Dang Thi Viet Anh in Man De village places two plastic bins, one for solid waste, the other for waste such as rotten vegetables, tubers, fruits... Every day, she meticulously sorts them, not letting the two types of waste mix together. "The village and commune leaders come down to check all the time, if we violate, we will be named and fined immediately," Ms. Anh informed.

Nam Trung Commune has dozens of households drying onions and garlic. Production and trading activities are bustling, but from the family premises to all the roads, they are basically always clean.

Party Secretary and Chairman of Nam Trung Commune People's Committee Nguyen Van Ben said that the implementation of the regulation on classifying household waste at source has been in place for the past 2 years. All people here, from old to young, are conscious of protecting the environment.

From May 1, 2022, Nam Sach district has directed communes and towns to simultaneously implement waste classification at source. The commune identified this as a difficult task because up to now, people have never classified waste, and some even litter indiscriminately in gardens, ponds, lakes, etc. However, successfully implementing this task will help the commune fully complete the criteria of an advanced new rural commune.

"We had to carefully research the implementation method, how to get people to agree and change their habits. In the end, we found that hand-holding was the most effective solution," Mr. Ben informed.

The entire political system in Nam Trung commune got involved, requiring all party members to take the lead and set an example in carrying out the above task. According to the directive, each village established a "hands-on" team to collect and classify garbage. Each team had about 100 people, each member was in charge of 40-50 households or more.

Every day, members of each group will divide up to go to each residential area to propagate and guide. Leaders of the Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee, heads of departments, branches and organizations also continuously go to the grassroots to both inspect and supervise the implementation and propagate and mobilize the people.

In the first 3 months, Nam Trung commune's loudspeakers continuously broadcast information on waste classification at source every day. On the traffic routes, the commune hung more than 100 banners and slogans to propagate and instruct. This "dense" visual propaganda work helped people quickly realize the meaning and importance of waste classification and voluntarily implement it.

The commune also recommends that schools hold extracurricular activities to guide students from kindergarten age 5 and up to classify garbage. Students quickly absorb knowledge and become active propagandists in each family.

"In the early days, many people were still confused, did not do it correctly or deliberately did not comply. We announced the names of households that did not comply on the loudspeaker. It only took exactly 3 months for the waste classification at source in Nam Trung to become routine, and every household strictly complied," Mr. Ben added.

Pointing to the row of flower paths and lush green trees in front of the Party Committee and People's Committee headquarters, Mr. Ben said that all the flower paths in the commune are fertilized with compost from organic waste.

Every day, the whole commune releases about 3 tons of waste into the environment, including about 2 tons of organic waste. Inorganic waste is collected and contracted with businesses to transport and treat it periodically.

For organic waste, Nam Trung commune invested about 350 million VND to build 6 compost tanks in the fields of Thuong Duong village. The commune assigned the collection teams to process it into organic fertilizer using biological products... Up to now, this locality has produced nearly 100 tons of organic fertilizer, providing free of charge to households in the commune to grow guava, banana, flower roads, trees along traffic routes...

Doing a good job of classifying waste at source has helped Nam Trung commune complete environmental criteria and be recognized as an advanced new rural commune in 2022.