Vietnamese police have confiscated an estimated 345,000 recycled condoms which had been resold as new after cleaning them. This week, a video broadcasted by Vietnam Television (VTV) displayed dozens of large bags consisting of the used contraceptives littered across the floor of a southern province of Binh Duong warehouse.
Monthly Input of Condoms
One woman said that she had been compensated by the pound to recycle the prophylactics. According to the warehouse owner, they had accepted a monthly supply of used condoms from an unidentified person, reported The Post Millennial. The authorities stated that the bags containing the recycled condoms weighed over 794lbs.
A bust operation on Saturday led to the site's renter, Pham Thi Thanh Ngoc, 32, to be taken into custody. Provincial market inspectors raided the warehouse.
Ngoc was provided generous space for the washing and reshaping of the used condoms with a wooden dildo, reported Nextshark.
Before being brought back into shape on a wooden dildo, the recycled condoms were boiled in water, they were packaged and sold as brand new.
Vietnamese police and local media were cited internationally for the coverage. A state-owned newspaper quoted a health authority indicating that the recycled condoms pose the utmost health risk to users.
How Many Recycled Condoms Have Been Sold?
According to Vietnam Television, it was not made clear the total amount of the recycled condoms had been sold already. The arrested woman indicated that she had been paid $0.17 for each kilogram of used condoms she produced.
Neither the woman nor the warehouse owner released a comment. Vietnamese police launched an investigation after the factory was discovered to be recycling used condoms. Binh Duong provincial market management force busted the factory after a tip-off from a local resident.
The factory was located just beyond Ho Chi Minh city, the southern economic hub. The provincial police were tracing individuals involved in the case for further probing.
The said factory had been taking the recycled condoms and putting them into new packaging to explicitly indicate that they have not been used.
According to the owner, who has been detained, the factory had been receiving a "monthly input of used condoms from an unknown person," reported Complex.
Also, according to a Vietnamese government official, "Condoms are classified as medical items, so we will take a look at the several laws that the owner has broken."
Regarding the police's announcement that they will probe into the case and track down other people involved in the operation, a comment from the police was not provided on Thursday.
The rubber prophylactics, repackaged to be sold again to the public, were sold at a presumably much lower price.
The recycled condoms did not indicate brand names and Ngoc was not able to provide documentation for the illegal business scheme.
Photographs in the Vietnam media display whole plastic bags filled with recycled condoms. They were initially seized as evidence but quickly destroyed as medical waste.
