Hanoi: Cleanliness and Confused cashiers

Hanoi employs an army of janitors and street cleaners. Who are seemingly always on the move, especially at night. The wages for unskilled work are low in Vietnam: whenever it comes to simple jobs, employment is no problem. That is why there are so many people in Hanoi who work in jobs that in Europe don’t even exist anymore. Shop owners who provide free delivery to your home for big purchases, for example. Or picking up money for purchased air tickets at the buyer’s home. It all works. And what also works: clean streets. Either literally with hand and broom, or with cleaning vehicles traveling through the streets. Every motorcycle rider knows these vehicles. They spray water in a high arching stream onto the road, which means that they ruin your pants when they meet them.

So Hanoi is clean, because it is kept clean. By the staff. And also by the shop and house owners. They also regularly clean the sidewalks. Only their own, of course. I do not know if they are required to do so, or whether they do it so that the shop front looks nicer. There are also quite different definitions of "clean" among these people. Sometimes it means simply to dump the old wash water from washing dishes across the sidewalk. Pedestrians, that very rare species in Hanoi, know these people very well. They ruin your pants when they meet them, if you are not careful (no one believes that the water slingers themselves are somehow careful).

In short: whether you get around by foot or on wheels, you should expect stains on your pants. But at least the streets are clean.

Cleanliness is very important in Vietnam. There are a lot of customs associated with the term "cleanliness ". Ritual cleanliness, so to speak. For example, before the Vietnamese New Year it is important to clean the entire house in order to start the new year right. By the way, bristly bamboo brooms are very, very useful and efficient cleaning devices. I would even say that, used correctly, they are surprisingly more effective than a modern vacuum cleaner. Of course, sweeping is also exhausting.

So are Hanoians then a waste-conscious people, thoroughly environmentally aware? No, that would be going too far. Many seem to think rather, if the streets are cleaned continuously, then I can just drop my garbage anywhere. Someone will sweep it up anyway. In supermarkets you get one plastic bag per purchased item. In addition, Vietnamese cashiers get very confused by plastic-waste-saving foreigners: the words "one bag is enough" normally leads to the other two bags, with contents, just being packed into the third bag. Bringing your own reusable carrying bag causes even more confusion.

The result can be admired everywhere where no street cleaners come by. For example, on the above-mentioned rice fields, whose owners have possibly not yet fully understood that plastic bags do not disappear on their own after three weeks like fruit peelings.

Must we then conclude that Hanoians do not care about their garbage? Also not true. Indeed, garbage is actually collected and recycled in Hanoi. Paper, cardboard, plastic. Everything is neatly separated. Why? Because it has a value. Traders sell the paper for a couple of Dong. Cleaning ladies earn a small tip by selling the plastic garbage of the house. This is not recycling for environmental reasons, it is a way to supplement meager wages.

Garbage is valuable.

That this is perhaps more clearly understood in a developing country like Vietnam than in Germany, is something almost shameful.

dfp