VNF's shrimp by-product products are being well received in many export markets. Photo: Provided by the enterprise

Create a new life cycle for by-products and waste

According to statistics from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, each year in Vietnam, about 1.8 million tons of plastic waste are discharged into the environment. However, the treatment of plastic waste is still limited. This raises many concerns for Mr. Do Anh Dung, Director of Dong Do Trading and Service Company Limited - a company established in 2000 with the main activity of providing scaffolding and formwork accessories for construction works. From practical experience, Mr. Dung realized that the disadvantage of plywood products is that they are exploited from natural sources, so they are limited, dependent on weather conditions and geographical distance, causing production costs to increase due to increasingly depleted raw materials. Therefore, he wanted to find a material that could replace traditional materials with abundant and easily controlled raw materials.

In 2018, Dong Do established and put into production phase 1 of Vision formwork factory in Long An. With the launch of Eco plastic formwork panels, Dong Do has taken advantage of recycled plastic materials as production materials as well as recycling products after use, reducing the need to cut down trees for production materials.

With the current phase 1, Dong Do can process about 20 - 25 tons of plastic per day and operate continuously 24/24 hours. Correspondingly, each month the company processes about 600 - 750 tons of plastic, and brings to the market about 25,000 - 30,000 plastic sheets, each sheet has an average weight of about 30 kg.

According to Mr. Dung, the market demand for plastic sheet products made from derivative plastic is very large because it can replace many other products. Therefore, in the near future, the company will focus on producing eco-plastic sheets with the best quality and the cheapest price so that it can be brought to the market in the largest quantity. In the future, Dong Do plans to export abroad, even open factories operating abroad, especially in developed countries.

Another by-product that many businesses are investing in researching and developing into high-value products is coffee grounds. In 2023, AirX Carbon - a purely Vietnamese startup launched the world's first carbon-negative material from coffee grounds. Currently, many large brands and corporations such as Nestlé, Paula's Choice, Uniqlo, Roche and Intercontinental Hotels Group... have joined hands with this business.

Previously, since 2017, Fashion Connection Joint Stock Company (Faslink) has also created a stir in the Vietnamese textile market when it cooperated with Singtex to research and launch the world's first coffee shirt product and commercialized it in Vietnam. Up to now, Faslink's coffee fiber fabric has been widely used in many types of clothing such as jeans, trousers... with more than 40 fashion brands, typically: Owen, Yody, Coolmate, Routine...

Export goods processed from by-products

As one of the world's largest shrimp exporting countries, every year the Vietnamese shrimp industry discharges a large amount of by-products, mainly heads, shells, scraps of meat, and spoiled shrimp. According to research by the Vietnam Investments Group, the value created from shrimp by-products increases according to the application of the final product as follows: in the livestock industry, the value increases 3-5 times; in the food industry, the value increases 5-10 times; in the nutritional food industry, it increases 15-20 times; and in the pharmaceutical industry, it increases 20-30 times. Currently, according to preliminary estimates, Vietnam is discharging and wasting 1,000 tons of shrimp by-products per day, including heads, shells, and other parts that are not used in the seafood processing process.

However, currently, most shrimp by-products are still processed in simple ways, most commonly by steaming, drying, and grinding, so the value is very low. By cooperating with domestic and foreign scientists, Vietnam Food Joint Stock Company (VNF) has extracted many valuable essences from shrimp by-products. Notably, chitosan is a biological material with great potential for the future. In medicine, chitosan is a substance that can promote wound healing, is an ingredient in anti-obesity drugs, and is a raw material for the production of glucosamine - a drug to support the treatment of joint diseases. In the world, 1 kg of pure chitosan for the medical industry can be sold for several hundred USD.

Ms. Nguyen Van An, VNF Strategy Director, said that after 10 years of research, development and testing, VNF has extracted 5 main groups of biological active ingredients, including: food ingredients; biological nutrition (easily digestible hydrolyzed protein); multifunctional biological polymer (chitosan); antioxidant astaxanthin and probiotics. Along with that are 80 different products put into 6 main application groups including livestock, farming, pets, food, human health care and many other industries. More specifically, VNF's products are being exported to many markets such as Europe, UK, Korea, Taiwan (China), India, Malaysia...

Similar to VNF, Phuc Sinh Joint Stock Company has also successfully developed cascara tea from the skin of coffee beans - a by-product of coffee processing. What is special is that this product is being very positively received by customers in the international market and brings very high value, even higher than the main product, green coffee. Mr. Phan Minh Thong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Phuc Sinh Company, said that Phuc Sinh currently produces about 10 tons of cascara tea each year. 90% of this is being exported to markets. Notably, the export value of these 10 tons of tea is currently equivalent to 40 tons of exported coffee.

The real story of VNF as well as Phuc Sinh has shown that investing in research and applying technology not only helps solve the problem of waste and agricultural by-products, but also creates high-value products, contributing to the profits of enterprises as well as bringing benefits to the economy.