'Initiative tree' kills trash and nurtures green buds

Ms. Dao Thi Doan, Head of Production Team No. 7 of Lao Cai Environmental Enterprise (under Lao Cai Urban Environment Joint Stock Company) has been attached to brooms, garbage trucks and turning tree stumps into brilliant flowers for nearly 30 years.

Overcoming all thanks to love for the job

Phan Boi Chau Street in Lao Cai Ward (Lao Cai Province) is always clean and green, even though there are many spiritual tourist attractions and many tourists from all over the world on the road. The reason for such a clean street is thanks to the environmental workers of Lao Cai Environmental Enterprise, typically Ms. Dao Thi Doan.

This year, turning 55, Ms. Doan has been working as a garbage collector for 25 years. Originally from Nam Dinh (old), Ms. Doan moved to Lao Cai and considers it her second hometown. Initially, Ms. Doan worked as a tailor, but in 2000 she applied to work as an environmental worker at the Provincial Urban Environment Joint Stock Company and has been there until now.

‘Cây sáng kiến’ diệt rác, ươm mầm xanh - Ảnh 1. — Ms. Doan has been involved in environmental sanitation for 25 years.

"Garbage collection requires staying up late and waking up early. When I first started my job, my children were still young and my husband had to go to work early, so I had to find many ways to send my children to work. Luckily, my family created conditions for me to stick with the job. I love garbage collection and have never thought of quitting," Ms. Doan confided.

Every day, when the night still covered the city, Ms. Doan and her fellow workers left home and started work. The sound of brooms quietly cleaned every street and corner. At the appointed time, she went to ring the gong to call each household to take out the trash, and she greeted everyone warmly, making everyone treat her like an honored guest in the early morning.

During her years of work, no matter if it was rainy or cold, Ms. Doan always took on the job, pushing the garbage cart, sweeping every corner so that the garbage would not accumulate during the day. Or during the process of sweeping the trash, many times she accidentally picked up lost items from people, Ms. Doan tried to return them as soon as possible. "Many times I picked up a lost wallet, I took a picture, posted it on social media and brought it back to the factory to hand it over to the person who lost it. Every time I did that, I felt very happy," Ms. Doan said.

Ms. Vu Thi Van, a resident of Le Loi Residential Area (Lao Cai Ward) said: "Ms. Doan is like a friend to us every morning. Although her work is hard, she is always dedicated and friendly to everyone. Since then, everyone has voluntarily taken out the trash on time and protected the environment according to her instructions."

‘Cây sáng kiến’ diệt rác, ươm mầm xanh - Ảnh 2. — Ms. Doan (right) and her colleagues plant flowers on the tree roots along the roadside.

Waste treatment innovation tree

Not only is she known as a person who is dedicated to her work, loves her job so much that she overcomes all the hardships and difficulties of the environmental profession, Ms. Doan is also an initiative of the agency. Typically, in 2022, she had the initiative "Blooming Trees": planting flowers on tree roots along the road, both helping to limit waste and weeds and brightly decorating the street.

"At first, I asked for flowers like portulaca, periwinkle, butterfly pea... to plant and take care of every day. I encouraged the women on the street to plant and take care of them together. When we needed money to buy flower seeds, the women in the group collected scrap and sold it to buy seeds. The model received support from the people and created colorful trees along the street," said Ms. Doan.

‘Cây sáng kiến’ diệt rác, ươm mầm xanh - Ảnh 3. — Brilliant flower roads in Lao Cai planted by environmental workers and local people

In addition, due to the fact that motorbikes often collide with garbage trucks due to poor visibility at night, Ms. Doan had the initiative to put reflective stickers on garbage trucks. Although the initiative was small, it was effective immediately. When motorbikes saw garbage trucks from a distance, they would proactively avoid them, avoiding unnecessary traffic collisions.

In particular, when seeing that the garbage collection vehicle does not have a braking system, it is very dangerous when going downhill because the heavy garbage vehicle has a large inertia, and the terrain has many slopes. After many days of thinking, Ms. Doan had the initiative to equip the garbage collection vehicle with a braking system to help women go downhill with peace of mind, without worrying about the vehicle falling down and endangering other road users.

For environmental workers, the broom is an indispensable item. However, the brooms initially given to workers were quite stiff and difficult to sweep. Based on that reality, Ms. Doan stripped the broom ribs and braided them, which helped the broom spread out and make it easier to sweep because it was soft, saving effort. The initiative was small but effective, so the women learned and followed it.

‘Cây sáng kiến’ diệt rác, ươm mầm xanh - Ảnh 4. — Ms. Doan was honored to receive the 2024 Vietnamese Women's Award.

Or since 2015, Lao Cai City (old) has had a policy of classifying organic and inorganic waste at the source. However, it is not easy for people to get into the habit of classifying waste. Ms. Doan has enthusiastically instructed the women to classify and use two separate trash bins. At the same time, she and the environmental women will collect the waste in two batches, the first batch is inorganic waste and the second batch is organic waste and recyclable waste.

Although it took more time and effort to collect garbage twice, it helped the women see clearly the determination of environmental workers in classifying garbage, thereby helping them join hands in classifying garbage. "Protecting the environment is a common task of the whole society, environmental workers alone cannot take on everything. Therefore, when there is cooperation from the people, taking out garbage on time, recycling plastic waste, taking care of flower streets... it will help the living environment become much greener," Ms. Doan affirmed.

As a team leader, Ms. Doan is also the one who connects the sisters in the team, helping each other in difficult times. The team has established a fund from the sale of recycled waste with the purpose of using the fund to support sisters in difficult circumstances, sick, creating a solid support, peace of mind for workers.

With a strong love for the profession and useful initiatives at work, Ms. Doan won the bronze prize in the Golden Broom competition awarded by the Vietnam Environmental Association in 2017; a certificate of merit from the Prime Minister in 2021 and 1 of 10 outstanding Vietnamese women awarded by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union in 2024.