Environmental Impact of Paper-Making
Attributes
Medium: Health and/or Human Capital
Country: Vietnam
Analytical Framework(s): Least Cost Concept
Study Date: 2007
Publication Date: 2008
Major Result(s)
| Category | Resource/Environmental Good | VND (2007) |
VND (2014)1 |
USD (2014)2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual plant with 7.5 m3/day | Investment cost (20 years) of wastewater treatment | 40,100,000.00 | 68,525,286.00 | 3,207.69 |
| Individual plant with 7.5 m3/day | Construction cost | 21,600,000.00 | 36,911,376.00 | 1,727.83 |
| Individual plant with 7.5 m3/day | Facility cost | 17,500,000.00 | 29,905,050.00 | 1,399.87 |
| Individual plant with 7.5 m3/day | Other costs | 1,000,000.00 | 1,708,860.00 | 79.99 |
| Individual plant with 7.5 m3/day | Operational costs (per day) | 18,000.00 | 30,759.48 | 1.44 |
| Individual plant with 7.5 m3/day | Cost of treatment of 1 m3 wastewater | 3,100.00 | 5,297.47 | 0.25 |
| Plant group with 250 m3/day | Investment cost (20 years) of wastewater treatment | 1,235,930,000.00 | 2,112,031,339.80 | 98,864.91 |
| Plant group with 250 m3/day | Construction cost | 580,500,000.00 | 991,993,230.00 | 46,435.54 |
| Plant group with 250 m3/day | Facility cost | 580,000,000.00 | 991,138,800.00 | 46,395.55 |
| Plant group with 250 m3/day | Other costs | 75,432,500.00 | 128,903,581.95 | 6,034.02 |
| Plant group with 250 m3/day | Operational costs (per day) | 488,000.00 | 833,923.68 | 39.04 |
| Plant group with 250 m3/day | Cost of treatment of 1 m3 wastewater | 2,600.00 | 4,443.04 | 0.21 |
About the Inflation Adjustment: Prices in Vietnam (VND) changed by 70.89% from 2007 to 2014 (aggregated from annual CPI data), so the study values were multiplied by 1.71 to express them in 2014 prices. The study values could be expressed in any desired year (for example, to 2026) by following the same inflation calculation and being sensitive to directional (forward/backward) aggregations using your own CPI/inflation data.
Study Note: The overall objective of this research was to investigate the environmental regulations related to paper-making plants and their compliance with such regulations in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam. The specific objectives of the research were to provide an overview of the environmental compliance status of the papermaking industry in Bac Ninh Province; to investigate the current costs of compliance of paper-making plants vis-à-vis the costs of full compliance; to analyze the factors affecting the level/extent of compliance of paper-making plants with environmental regulations; and to draw policy implications for better environmental compliance and pollution mitigation in Bac Ninh Province.
Study Details
Summary: This study investigated the compliance of paper-making plants in Phong Khe Commune of Bac Ninh Province with environmental regulations. Despite contributing greatly to the economic development of the commune, the paper-making industry has generated a huge amount of waste and is considered as one of the most serious polluters in the region. According to existing regulations, all paper plants in the commune are required to submit an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report, pay the wastewater charges, and establish a wastewater treatment system. Many paper-making plants in the commune have not, however, comply with these regulations. Although fines were imposed for noncompliance, only a few plants have paid the fines due to weak enforcement. As a result, the current costs of compliance of paper-making plants are very small compared with the full costs of compliance. Type of plant, location of the plant, and number of schooling years of the plant owners were found to be significant factors affecting compliance. The main reasons why the plants did not comply with the regulations were the plant owners' inadequate understanding of environmental regulations, their lack of financial resources, limited space for treatment system installation, small fines, and the limited capacity of the local environment authorities in enforcing the regulations. The option of wastewater treatment for a group of paper-making plants located close to one another was widely accepted. The study proposes collective action for the adoption of this treatment option and policy recommendations.
Site Characteristics: Bac Ninh Province is located in the center of the Red River Delta, Vietnam, next to Hanoi City. It lies within the Northern Key Economic Zone, where the economic growth rate is rather high. In recent years, Bac Ninh has achieved significant socio-economic growth. The provincial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) doubled from 1,548.3 billion VND in 1996 to 3,666.9 billion VND in 2003 (estimated at 1994 prices), and increased to around 4,657.3 billion VND in 2005. During the period 1996-2005, Bac Ninh's GDP growth rates were stable at around 13.5%, much higher than the national GDP growth rate. Of three sectors (i.e., agriculture, industry, and services), the industrial sector has shown the fastest growth. Its contribution to provincial GDP increased from 372.4 billion VND in 1996 to 2,110 billion VND in 2005. Consequently, the contribution of this sector to provincial GDP rose from 22.3% in 1996 to 45.1% in 2005. The paper-making industry in Bac Ninh is among the most significant, making up between 5-6% of the total annual industrial output value from 1996-2005. The industry's output value increased from 24.2 billion VND in 1996 to 157.9 billion VND in 2002 and an estimated 414.3 billion VND in 2006 (at 1994 base year prices, according to Decision No. 192 TCTK-TH of 1995) at a growth rate of 49% per annum. As of 2005, paper-making in Bac Ninh accounted for 16.42% of total paper products in the whole country and generated permanent employment for more than 3,000 people in the province. More than 90% of around 190 paper-making plants in Bac Ninh Province are located in Phong Khe Commune. There are around 210 paper-making lines in the commune with the capacity to produce 300-5,000 tonnes/line/year. The main inputs for paper-making here are wastepaper and bamboo. The products include various kinds of paper such as printing paper, writing paper, votive paper, toilet paper, and 'kraft' paper. In 2005, the paper-making industry of the communes produced around 30 thousand tonnes of various kinds of papers each month.
Comments: There are around 190 paper-making plants in Bac Ninh Province. About 90% or 175 of those plants are located in Phong Khe Commune. This research therefore focused mainly on the plants in Phong Khe Commune as the representive sample for the papermaking industry in Bac Ninh Province. There are a number of environmental regulations directly and indirectly affecting the paper-making plants in Bac Ninh Province. However, only those regulations that directly affected the paper-making plants were considered in this study, namely, for the plants to submit their environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports, pay their wastewater fees and build wastewater treatment systems. The compliance cost refers to the cost that increases or the benefit that decreases when paper-making plants comply with environmental regulations. Thus, the compliance cost could be the cost of establishing and operating a wastewater treatment system to meet the standards, the wastewater fee, and any other environmental fee that paper-making plants have to pay in accordance with the regulations.