Toilet paper factories pollute the environment

(Baonghean) - Although the company has been granted a license to build a high-quality toilet paper factory, the entire factory of Hai Hien Production and Trading Company Limited (Hung Loc Industrial Park - Vinh City) is no different from a giant landfill. Here, more than 100 tons of toilet paper are produced and sold on the market every year, but there is a potential risk of unhygienic conditions and environmental pollution...

The factory of Hai Hien Production and Trading Company Limited in Hung Loc Industrial Park (Vinh City) is “closed” all year round. We had to struggle to “break in” and what caught our eyes was countless types of waste paper collected from everywhere. There were all kinds of paper, left haphazardly, scattered from the yard to the house.

Mr. Ho Anh Hien, the company director, led us inside and then "carelessly" stepped on the pile of paper in his slippers and said: This amount of paper is enough for our factory to produce for 3 months. In the warehouse area, a group of people took turns carrying firewood into the furnace, next to it was a puddle of black water, paper, firewood, lying around, looking very dirty. In the factory area, all kinds of waste, toilet paper, and cut paper were lying around. In the middle of the factory were 4 or 5 rolls of finished but uncut paper lying on the muddy ground. In the corner of the house, 3-4 female workers were sitting cutting paper into square stacks. Picking it up, we saw the label: "Tissue paper, new high quality product Huy Hoang 9999". Next to that, there are many other types of tissues and baby diapers packaged in roll form with brands such as Wet Sulk... Wondering if this is a "fake" Wetter Silk brand paper, Mr. Hien said: "This is a product produced elsewhere, we get more to resell to customers."

A corner of the factory.

Through investigation at 3 units, namely the Department of Food Safety and Hygiene, the Department of Industry and Trade, and the Department of Standards and Quality Measurement of Nghe An, we did not find that the paper production facility of Hai Hien Production and Trading Company Limited (Hung Loc Industrial Park) registered for standards. Talking to us, Ms. Tu Thi Nhu Quynh, Deputy Head of Technical Barriers Q&A Department (TBT Department) - Department of Standards and Quality Measurement said: "If following the correct procedures, the production unit must announce the applied standards, test results and must re-announce once every 3 years. But currently, the department has not had any paper production unit in the province registered to declare conformity to standards as prescribed."

The quality of this factory is unknown, but the environmental pollution caused by this factory has been reported by many people in My Ha hamlet (Hung Loc commune). Mr. Tran Van Tam, a resident of My Ha hamlet, lamented: “Since Hai Hien Factory and some other factories in the industrial park started production, we people cannot breathe. The worst thing is the two chimneys of Hai Hien Company, we don't know what they are burning, but the smoke gives off a strong chemical smell. My wife has stage 4 heart failure, so whenever the factory burns, she has to run to another place, and when she sleeps, she has to cover her face with a wet towel. I had to put a tarpaulin to cover the windows to block the smoke, but it didn't work.”

Opposite Hai Hien Company is the army unit of K55 General Logistics Warehouse. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen The Dai, Deputy Political Commissar of the unit, was upset: “The smoke is heavy and smells strong, especially when there is a southwest wind. On days when there is a lot of burning, the smoke is black and the trees are damaged. The unit has sent petitions to the authorities many times but they have not been resolved yet.” Leading us around the factory area, Mr. Le Duy Thai, head of My Ha hamlet, said: “The industrial park was built nearly ten years ago but there is no wastewater treatment system, all of it flows directly into the fields, causing damage to the rice and crops of the people in the hamlet. Almost every year, farmers in the hamlet report the damage to the commune. Previously, the city built a treatment tank but after it was finished, it was left there as a place for people to raise fish.”

Working with the City Environment Department, Mr. Le Minh Tuan said: “The people's reflection on the environmental pollution situation in the Hung Loc small industrial park in the past time is true. As for Hai Hien Company, the interdisciplinary inspection team of the city and the Provincial People's Committee has also inspected many times and each time discovered violations of environmental pollution.

Specifically, on November 5, 2010, Conclusion No. 39/KL.UBND of Vinh City stated: “The company arranges a production line in a closed workshop, industrial wastewater is collected through 1 pond and 1 pit in the company's premises, is not treated and has the risk of polluting groundwater. Wastewater in the pond is not treated and flows directly into the general drainage system of Hung Loc Industrial Park. Monitoring results show that some indicators (SO2, dust, smoke, SS. COD) exceed the permitted standards. In addition, "industrial wastewater has not been treated in accordance with the content registered in the environmental protection commitment; The wood-burning furnace's emissions have not been treated to meet current environmental standards, there is no license to exploit underground water as prescribed, and there is still a situation of waste being dumped haphazardly in the premises, not collected as prescribed." Although the city's inspection team requested the company to "build a system to treat exhaust gas and wastewater, complete procedures to apply for a license to exploit wastewater, register the waste owner and clean regularly before December 31, 2010", but half a year later, the provincial People's Committee's inspection team came to inspect many contents that had not yet been implemented.

According to the Inspection Conclusion No. 1553/KL - TNMT.KT dated June 13, 2011, it shows that: "The company has not conducted periodic environmental quality monitoring since 2009, emissions from the toilet paper production line boiler, solid waste collection and management are still limited, and are still left haphazardly not according to regulations. Hazardous waste: the facility has not collected and managed according to the law. Water samples taken from the drainage ditch before being discharged have a BOD5 parameter exceeding 1.96 times. The company has not fully implemented the inspection requirements according to Decision 3833/QQD - People's Committee dated August 12, 2010. From 2012 to now, according to Mr. Le Minh Tuan, the city has not had the conditions to conduct inspection.

In response to people's complaints, authorities need to actively investigate the level of pollution and resolutely handle it.

PV