Formosa permitted to sell fly ash discharged from its thermal power plant

By Trung Ngoc - Dec 20, 2017 | 07:45 AM GMT+7

TheLEADERThe Ministry of Construction (MoC) has issued Document No.47/BXD-VLXD on allowing Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation (Formosa) to supply fly ash to units capable of trading construction materials.

Formosa permitted to sell fly ash discharged from its thermal power plant
Formosa wishes to sell fly ash discharged from its thermal power plant. Photo: Dan Tri

Previously, on October 31, 2017, MoC received Formosa’s official letter No. 1710110/CV-FHS reporting the management and treatment of fly ash and gypsum produced from its thermal power plant.

According to MoC, the State encourages the treatment and use of ash, slag and gypsum discharged from the production of thermal power, fertilizer, chemicals, steel and other industrial facilities which produce construction materials.

According to the Prime Minister's Decision No. 452/QD-TTg dated April 12, 2017, FHS’s fly ash product is in compliance with the national standard QCVN16:2014/BXD and considered as a commodity of construction material and adjusted following the provisions of law on commodity.

However, MoC also noted that the transport of fly ash must comply with environmental safety regulations for transporting construction materials in accordance with the Law on Environmental Protection 2014.

Earlier, fly ash was considered to be the culprit causing bad impacts on the environment. However, there are solutions to turn fly ash from waste into valuable material for the construction industry now.

Last year, the marine environmental disaster was caused by Formosa. Formosa admitted its responsibility for the incident and made a public apology to the Vietnamese government and people. It also dealt with the consequences seriously by paying US$500 million in compensation and taking steps to correct environmental violations.