What Kashmir Can Learn From Vietnam's Green Warriors

Srinagar: In Vietnam's capital Hanoi, nearly 10,000 women collect and sort plastic waste every day, forming what experts call an“invisible army” of informal workers who prevent tonnes of plastic from choking landfills, rivers and oceans.

Their stories, featured in the World Economic Forum documentary Invisible Warriors: The Force Behind Vietnam's Plastic Action, showcase how grassroots efforts can transform a national fight against pollution.

“These women are among Vietnam's unsung environmental stewards,” says a piece published on the World Economic Forum website.“Behind nearly 90% of all plastic recycled in Vietnam is someone like Ms Nguyen Thi Kenh or Ms Nguyen Thi Lanh, pushing a heavy cart through narrow alleyways, picking through household waste, often without gloves or other protective gear.”

The Vietnamese model offers valuable lessons for regions like Jammu and Kashmir, where plastic pollution has become an urgent environmental crisis. As per estimates, Jammu & Kashmir generates more than 51,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually. With no proper segregation at source and inadequate collection systems, discarded plastic ends up“in landfills, rivers, streams, and even forests, polluting fragile ecosystems from Dal Lake to remote mountain valleys.

Plastic has crept into nearly every aspect of daily life in Kashmir, from packaging at retail outlets to bottled water reliance, disposable cutlery at food stalls, microplastics from synthetic clothing, and PVC debris at construction sites.

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