How Anh Duong turns plastic waste into products, learnings, livelihoods in Vietnam

In the heart of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, plastic waste is more than an envir­on­ment­al issue; it is a com­munity challenge. 

Anh Duong Cen­ter is facing up to the chal­lenge by turn­ing plastic waste into products, learn­ings, and livelihoods. 

Their innov­at­ive school-based mod­el has earned recog­ni­tion from the 2025 EXO Found­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Awards in the ‘People’ category.

Connecting education and the environment

Anh Duong Center’s approach began with a simple but power­ful idea: link envir­on­ment­al aware­ness with children’s education.

For our plastic waste recyc­ling pro­ject, for example, instead of merely col­lect­ing waste, we empower stu­dents to become envir­on­ment­al ambas­sad­ors. Dur­ing schol­ar­ship and school events, stu­dents are invited to bring in sor­ted plastic waste. 

Anh Duong Cen­ter buys the waste, provid­ing a small but sym­bol­ic income to the stu­dents’ fam­il­ies while rein­for­cing the value of recyc­ling and col­lect­ive responsibility.

So far, the pro­gram has col­lec­ted and recycled nearly nine tons of plastic. Long Tri A1 School stands out as a lead­ing example, with 600 kg of waste col­lec­ted, inspir­ing the wider com­munity to take action.

Con­tents ^

Plastic waste reborn as educational assets

Through Anh Duong Center­’s close col­lab­or­a­tion with tech­nic­al part­ners, the col­lec­ted plastic waste is trans­formed into tan­gible, use­ful products for schools.

The res­ults speak for them­selves. So far we have giv­en plastic waste new use­ful life in the form of:

• 260 sets of desks and chairs
• 44 trash bins, and
• 30 book­shelves

Made almost entirely from recycled plastic, these are not only func­tion­al assets, they are power­ful sym­bols of the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy in action.

Bey­ond the classroom, recycled plastic has also con­trib­uted to 33 eco-houses with roof­ing sheets made from one ton of reused plastic.

Loc­al artis­ans have found new live­li­hoods through this pro­cess, strength­en­ing com­munity resi­li­ence and mak­ing loc­al people the true heart of the project.

The ini­ti­at­ive sup­ports low-income fam­il­ies while redu­cing pol­lu­tion, demon­strat­ing that sus­tain­ab­il­ity and social impact can go hand-in-hand.

Con­tents ^

Classrooms that clean the environment

Every classroom that is equipped with 20 sets of recycled-plastic desks and chairs helps remove approx­im­ately 500 kg of plastic waste from the environment.

What was once trash now sup­ports children’s learn­ing; a vivid example of edu­ca­tion and eco­logy work­ing together.

This trans­form­a­tion cre­ates ripple effects: clean­er vil­lages, inspired youth, and a shared pride in sus­tain­able living.

Con­tents ^

Join us to be part of the change

The jour­ney doesn’t end with an award. Anh Duong Cen­ter con­tin­ues to expand this mod­el to more schools and com­munit­ies across the Mekong Delta.

Every­one can play a part; stu­dents, par­ents, loc­al author­it­ies, and organ­isa­tions com­mit­ted to a green­er, more caring Vietnam.

Con­tents ^

About Anh Duong Center

Anh Duong Cen­ter has been imple­ment­ing pro­jects in poor com­munit­ies in the Long My and Phung Hiep dis­tricts of Hau Giang province, Viet­nam since 2005. 

Pro­ject areas include:

• Edu­ca­tion and training
• Infra­struc­ture
• Envir­on­ment
• Micro­cre­d­it

Anh Duong Cen­ter pro­jects aim to help poor women, chil­dren, and house­holds improve their liv­ing standards.

Our mis­sion is to improve the qual­ity of life for the poor while pro­tect­ing the envir­on­ment. We encour­age poor com­munit­ies to improve their capa­city to solve their own prob­lems, improve their liv­ing stand­ards, and pri­or­it­ise edu­ca­tion for women and children. 

We wish to build solid­ar­ity and mutu­al sup­port among com­munit­ies and towards sus­tain­able development.

Find us on our web­site and on Face­book.

Anh Duong Cen­ter Office
HB Res­id­en­tial Area, Cluster 1, Long My Ward, Can Tho City (former Hau Giang Province)

Email: [email protected]
Tele­phone: (+84) 2933 871 869

Anh Duong Cen­ter is an EXO Found­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Award winner.

Con­tents ^

About the author

Phạm Phi Anh, Anh Duong Center­’s Deputy Head of Pro­ject Devel­op­ment — Fun­drais­ing Unit, has writ­ten this blog post on behalf of the whole Anh Duong team.

Featured image (top of post)

Top image: Stu­dents enthu­si­ast­ic­ally col­lect plastic waste dur­ing school activ­it­ies, turn­ing envir­on­ment­al action into a learn­ing exper­i­ence. Bot­tom image: Recycled-plastic desks and chairs breathe new life into classrooms while redu­cing 500 kilo­grams of plastic waste per 20-stu­dent class. Both images sup­plied by Anh Duong Center.

Top ^