Hanoi

Coming from a very clean country where littering falls
into reals of anti social behaviour and is subject to fines I am used to throwing
rubbish in the rubbish bin and not on the street. But here in Hanoi there are
very few rubbish bins and this is perhaps why most people throw just about everything
which is of no use on the street or into the gutter.

At times, if I have a larger item I may place my rubbish
on a rubbish pile but feel uneasy about it.

Today I figured out why littering may not be such a bad
thing.

Instead of taking a taxi to the railway station I walked
the 45 minutes it took me to get there. I had to follow a maze of streets and
noticed something interesting. It was 8 pm and had been dark for an hour.
Everywhere there were piles of rubbish, but there was something about
them. The majority of the shopkeepers
clean their own area just before closing time. They sweep the rubbish into nice
little piles or combine them with the piles of their neighbour or add it to the
pile on the corner of the street. Here I saw people going through the rubbish,
removing cardboard, plastic bottles or perhaps other items they can make some
money out of.

Mainly female street sweepers with long broom made of
long twigs swept loose items from the road into the gutter followed by other
street sweepers pushing it into neat piles. Down the street a small steel
container was being filled with all the rubbish piles and at the end of the
road a saw a large truck emptying the smaller containers into the truck. They
were the night street cleaners. Different groups wear different uniforms,
either green or blue. On their heads a traditional conical hat covered in tight
plastic to make them waterproof or a helmet. These people were doing what the
goats, pigs, cows and goats were doing in India. Over there it was more refined
though. The rubbish would be turned into manure; people would gather it up and
dry it on the walls of their houses. After several days when the manure was dry
it would serve as fuel for their stoves. Here in Vietnam I don’t know where all
the rubbish ends up. One thing I do know- Around the country each and every
night perhaps 100.000 people or more are employed as street cleaners; it
assures them an income and food on the
table. Tomorrow I won’t feel so bad about throwing something away as I know it
provides another person with job.

I finally figured it out!