best recycling uses - Vietnam

I am constantly impressed with our ingenuity.  And that's why I am a bit optimistic about our future on this planet.  While technology will not be solving most of our issues, it can contribute in a positive way.  In the 70's the term 'appropriate technology' became a buzz word.  To this day we are still trying to define what that means.  The best example of good appropriate technology is LED light bulbs.  They last a long time (until most manufacturers downsized their run hours from 100,000 hours to 20,000 hours - gee, I wonder why? )


Here's another one:  using our discarded plastics as road beds.  Not that we need more roads, but those colored (especially green) plastic bottles that can't be recycled back into something useful are being Vietnam to build roads.  Turns out that other Asian countries have also done this... when will the USA and Europe start doing that?

I also found an interesting link on Vietnam's supermarket packaging.  They are

eschewing plastic bags for wrapping things and going back to the old practice of using leaves.  I fondly remember many meals in Asia where I scooped my food from a leaf container rather than a dish plate.  Pretty cool alternative especially to plastic plates and utensils.  I doubt if it would ever catch on with Westerners who would think such a practice as 'yukky'. 





There's also this very cool pic about Vietnam reusing plastic straws to build a Guinness record 'green plastic wave' for kids to play in.  A different kind of eco-art.