i Jer 3141301254200

Int. J. Environ. Res., 5(2):285-296, Spring 2011ISSN: 1735-6865

Received 12 Sep. 2009; Revised 17 Aug. 2010; Accepted 25 Aug. 2010

*Corresponding author E-mail: [email protected]

285

Municipal Solid Waste Management in Vietnam: Status andthe Strategic Actions

Thanh, N. P.1* and Matsui , Y.

1 Graduate School of Environmental Science Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Okayama 700-8530, Japan

2 College of Environment and Natural resources Can Tho UniversityCampus II, 3/2 street, Ninh Kieu district, Can Tho city, Vietnam Tel/Fax: 0710-383-1068

ABSTRACT: In Vietnam, municipal solid waste (MSW) has being become increasing complex due to varietyof reasons as the increasing quantity, changing composition of MSW, rising public awareness and municipaladministration policies among different cities and surrounding communities. There is not currently an efficientmanagement system in place for facilities such as storage, collection, transfer, transportation and disposal ofMSW. Against this backdrop, this paper attempts to analyze the present system of MSW addressing varietyof aspects such as quantity and composition of MSW generation, operational management, legal system aswell as financial aspect. The systematic assessment has revealed the problems like lack of legal framework,low coverage, improper waste storage, less encouragement for composting, and lack of proper disposalpractices. Finally, an action plan is proposed suggestion for current and future addressing the issues as theoperational management, institutional, financial aspect, public participation, environmental education, andlegal and policies.

Key words: Solid waste management, Waste collection, Disposal, Strategic actions, Vietnam

INTRODUCTIONIncreasing waste generation due to rising

population and waste generation rate become achallenge for Vietnam government to establish properMSW management. Recently, MSW management inVietnam takes a serious attention at different levels ofgovernments as well as at community level. Weak wastemanagement is a common growing problem facingdeveloping countries. There is a need for specific actionat the international level to establish, inspire andencourage new forms of cooperation, partnership,coordination at all levels, in order to contributeeffectively to the provision and improvement of wastemanagement services.

Recently, Vietnam has faced great challenges insolid waste management including not only thecollection, transfer, and final disposal of waste, but alsoa lack of public awareness of the solid waste system,haphazard urbanization, the introduction ofenvironmentally unfriendly materials, and changingconsumer consumption patterns.

Vietnam with the total area of 331,210 sq km is oneof most populous country in Southeast Asia. In July

2009, i ts populat ion was est imated to beapproximately 86,967,524; and its population growthrate was 0.977%. In contrast to that, approximately28% of the countrys residents currently live in thecities; its urbanization rate was 3.1% annual rate ofchange (CIA Factbook, 2009). Solid waste is agrowing problem for Vietnam. The country isproducing more than 15 million tons of waste eachyear, and this volume is expected to grow rapidlyover the next decade. Urban areas produce more than50% of the countrys municipal waste. In addition,expanding urbanization, combined with industrialgrowth and the modernization of healthcare services,will lead to a significant increase in hazardous andhazardous healthcare waste generation, posingserious health concerns if not properly managed. Thispaper presents the situation analysis of prevailingMSW management in Vietnam addressing mainly theoperational, financial and legal aspects for storage,collection, transportation, treatment and disposalsystems. Accordingly, the shortcomings have beenidentified and a strategic action plan for short andlong term is suggested.

286

Institutional arrangement for Waste managementVietnam faces institutional challenges to the

effective waste management from the national to theprovincial levels, which the management of waste variesfrom one place to another. The Environment ProtectionLaw was introduced in 1994 but standards andregulations for urban management and wastemanagement have just enacted and not completed yet.The government has full authority for environmentalprotection throughout the country. The Ministry ofNatural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) isauthorized by the government to implement statemanagement of environmental protection andnationwide coordination of all environmental protectionactivities in Vietnam.

There are several Ministries directly involved inwaste management. The main Ministry responsible forsolid waste management (SWM) in Vietnam is theMoNRE - for environment management, monitoring andassessment. Additionally, five other Ministries are alsodirectly involved in waste management activities.These Ministries have specific role to play in SWMsystem, the institution arrangement at national levelof Ministries for managing the solid waste managementin Vietnam presented in Fig. 1. The provincial andmunicipal governments play key roles in providingservices of SWM, consisting Peoples Committee (PC),Department of Natural Resource and Environment(DoNRE), and Urban Environment Company(URENCO).

PC is responsible for state administration at thelocal level. Its responsibilities in waste managementare such as i) implementation of state managementregulations on environmental protection in theirrespective localities, direct their functional agenciesin organizing, coordinating with the functionalagencies of the central level;ii) direction andconsultancy for proper waste management facilities,waste treatment projects in terms of design,construction, monitoring, etc; iii) and investment andsubsidization for solid waste management andtreatment facilities.

DoNRE is an agency of MoNRE, it also operatesunder the influences of both parties: PC in terms of

administrative and political relations and MoNRE interms of collaboration, support, and technicalguidance. DoNRE plays an important role in wastemanagement with respect to monitoring environmentalquality, managing and implementing waste managementpolicies and regulations issued by MoNRE and PC.

URENCO, an agency of DoNRE or PC, is the maincompany in charge of waste collection, transport, andtreatment in the province or city. Besides URENCO isalso in charge of solid waste collecting, keepinghygiene for public place, public lighting, planting andtaking care of trees along the street.

MSW management systemMSW management in a city is managed by

URENCO which has responsibility to collect, transportand treat the solid waste generated from residentialareas, streets, commercial areas, offices, markets,industrial parks, hospitals, etc. Besides, privatecompanies, recycling companies also participate insome cities for MSW management activities.MSW generation from various sources in municipalarea is temporarily stored at convenient locations. Next,this is collected, transferred and transported tointermediate treatment facilities and final disposal site.The overall system consists of waste storage,collection system, transfer station, transportation andfinal disposal presented as Fig. 2. and each stage ofthe management system is described below.

Quantity and composition of municipal solid wasteThe general waste generation in Vietnam by the

year 2003 presented in Table 1, the waste generationamounts to over 15 million tons each year; in whichMSW accounted for very large proportion, about 80%,while industrial waste accounted approximately 17%,and hazardous healthcare waste from hospitalsaccounted about 0.14% (see Fig. 3). As one significantaspect of MSW in Vietnams cities, it is large volumeand amount of waste generation, high percentage oforganic matters in total waste generation and variouscompositions.

Cities in Vietnam are major generators of MSW.Urban areas contain only 24% of the countrys

Table 1. Waste generation in Vietnam in 2003Waste generation (ton/year) Sources

Urban Rural Total Munic ipal waste 6,400,000 (50%) 6,400,000 (50%) 12,800,000 Industr ial Non-hazardous waste 1,740,000 (69%) 770,000 (31%) 2,510,000 Industr ial hazardous waste 126,000 (98.4%) 2,400 (1.6%) 128,000 Hazardous healthcare waste - - 21,500 Total (excluded agriculture waste) 8,226,000 (53.3%) 7,172,400 15,459,900 (World Bank, 2004)

Thanh, N. P. and Matsui , Y.

Int. J. Environ. Res., 5(2):285-296, Spring 2011

287

Ministry of Natural

Resource and Environment

(MoNRE)

Hazardous waste Municipal solid waste Industrial solid waste

Ministry of Construction

(MoC)

Ministry of Health (MoH)

Ministry of Planning and Investment

(MPI)

Ministry of Transport

(MoT)

Ministry of Industry (MoI)

National Environmental

Agency (NEA)

Department of Environmental

Impact Assessment

(DoEIA)

Department of Natural

Resources Environment

(DoNRE)

(Viet et al., 2009)Fig. 1. Institution arrangement at national level of solid waste management in Vietnam

HOUSEHOLD 9 Plastic/pa per bag 9 Plastic/metal bin 9 Wa ste b asket 9 Brick box 9 Wh atever

RETAIL M ARKETS 9 Plast ic bag 9 Waste basket 9 Whatever

HEALTHCARE 9 Specializ ed bin

INDUSTRIAL, COMM ERCIAL,

INSTITUTE 9 Plastic/metal

con tainer 9 Brick box 9 Whatever

STREET/PUBLIC FACILITIES 9 Plastic bag 9 Brick box 9 Whatever

Specialized truckURENCO

Specializ ed tr uck URENCO

GENER ATION & STORAGE SYSTEM

COLLECTION SYSTEM

TRANSFER STATION

TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

TREATMENT & DISPOSAL SYS TEM

INCINERATION

URENCO, Private

companies Handcar tsMini tru cks

URENCOStations Meeting points

URENCO, Private

companies General-purpose

trucks Mini tr ucks Forklift trucks, Compression trucks

Environment treatment

companies

Environment treatment

companies

COMPOSTIN

LANDFILL

Open dumping S an itary landfi ll

Speciali zed t ruck Specialized truck

URENCO,Private

companies Min i trucksCompression trucks

URENCO, Private

companies Mini trucks Compres sion trucks

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of waste management system in Vietnam

288

Municipal Solid Waste Management

(World Bank, 2004)Fig. 3. Waste quantity distributions in Vietnam

Table 2. Municipal solid waste generation and collection in major cities/areas in Vietnam

City/ar ea Population (2003)

Gene ration rate

(kg/cap/day)

Waste gen eration amoun t

(% of total)

Or ganic c on tent (% )

(%)

Collection rate (% )

Ho Chi Minh City 5 ,554,800 1 .3 9 80 73 Ha Noi City 3 ,007,000 1 .0 6 59 81 Da Nang City 747,100 0 .9 2 77 80 Can Tho City(* ) 1 ,114,300 0 .45 2 77 80 Ur ba n area ( i l)

20,869,500 0.7 50 55 74 Rural are a (National)

60,032,900 0.3 50 60-65 -

(World Bank, 2004)(*) Can Thos DOST and City peoples committee, 2004

population but produce over 6 million tons of wasteeach year, 50% of the countrys MSW (see Table 1).Table 2 presents the waste generation in the major citiesin Vietnam by the year 2003. It is estimated that anaverage urban resident in Vietnam produces over 0.7kg/cap/day, about twice the amount produced bypeople in rural areas. In a study carried out by theWorld Bank (World Bank, 1999), shown the interactionof the percentage of urban population and the GNP percapita to the waste generation rate (kg/cap/day) ofAsian countries, presented in Table 3. In which, thegeneration rate of Vietnam is a little lower than othercountries.MSW contains a large proportion (60-80%)of easily biodegradable organic waste. Table 4 presentsthe typical physical composition of MSW in Vietnamat source, transfer station and landfill site, respectively.

Storage at generation points and collection systemIn Vietnam, MSW are mainly collected at urban

central areas and apart of sub-urban areas. Solid

wastes in rural areas are collected and treated bygenerators with many disposal alternatives, whichhave not been intervened by municipality. Up to now,there are rare documents or guidelines relating to ruralsolid waste management. The collection ratementioned in this paper is only the rate at urban areas.

Residential area (households)At residential areas, the waste storage is not similar

on size, volume, shape, color, etc. Generally, wastestorage is forms as plastic/metal bin, the fixed brick-box or temporary bin, putted in front of the house.Many cases, that the storage is temporary containersas plastic bag, paper bag or throw away on the sidewalkof the street. Most of the waste storage is open systemwith varying capacity from 5 to 100 liters.

In the urban districts, citizens place their waste outon the open gutters of the street in front of their dwellingfor URENCO employees to pick up. The trash istransported by handcarts, which have various types

289


with a capacity of 0.6-1.5m3 (see Fig. 3). The collectionactivities carried out daily by the URENCO collectorspushing handcarts on foot door-to-door. When thehandcarts are full, they are transported to a designatedtransfer station not far away where a waste truck willtransport the waste to the nearest dumpsite or landfill.In places where there are no transfer points, residentsare provided with a communal container and areresponsible for disposing their waste into the containers.A URENCO truck daily comes to unload the communalcontainer and transport it to the dumpsite.

Commercial, industrial and institutional areasFor large commercial and industrial areas, these

generated 3 kinds of solid waste as domestic waste,hazardous waste and recycling waste. Domestic waste

Table 3. Municipal solid waste generation in different Asian countries

Country GNP per capita (1995) (US $)

Urban population (% of total)

Urban MSW generat ion (kg/capita/day)

Nepal 200 13.7 0.50 Bangladesh 240 18.3 0.59 Myanmar 240 26.2 0.45 Vietnam 240 20.8 0.55 Mongolia 310 60.9 0.60 India 340 26.8 0.46 Lao PDR 350 21.7 0.69 China 620 30.3 0.79 Sri Lanka 700 22.4 0.89 Indonesia 980 35.4 0.76 Philippines 1,050 54.2 0.54 Thailand 2,740 20.0 1.10 Malaysia 3,890 53.7 0.81 Korea 9,700 81.3 1.59 S ingapore 26,730 100 1.10 Japan 39,640 77.6 1.47

(World Bank, 1999)

is collected by waste trucks of URENCO viaengagement contracts between generators andURENCO. Regarding hazardous waste, generators areresponsible to rent the solid waste treatmentcompanies or private agencies which are certificatedthe permission by city environmental authorities(DoNRE), based on basic contract for waste collection,transportation and treatment.

Healthcare waste is managed and collected by localURENCO as well. The storage is refuse bin, whichoperated like close circulation between hospitals andincinerators by specialized trucks (see Fig. 4). Therefuse bins volume is about 120L; it has covered andrecognized by specially symbol outside of the refusebin.

Table 4. Municipal solid waste composition in Ho Chi Minh City, VietnamComponents Source Transfer station Landfill site Food waste 65-95 78-83 60-90 Paper 0.5-2.5 2-6 1-4 Textile 0-18 0.5-6 6-12 Plastic 2-19 6-25 10-30 Lea ther 0-3 0-1 0-0.2 Wood 0-1 0-2 0 Metal 0-2.9 0-0.1 0 Glass 0-3 0-0.1 0 Rubber 0-0.5 0 0-0.2 Ceramic 0-1.2 0-0.2 0-0.4 Construc tion 0-5 0-4 0-1.5

(MOC, 2003)

290

Fig. 3. Various handcarts for door-to-door collected waste

The streetEach household is responsible for the removal of

waste in front of his/her house. Wastes from main roadsare swept by the municipal employees. For commercialareas, street sweepers are responsible for keepingpublic streets and facilities clean, including city yards,terminals, etc. Street sweeping is carried out bothmanually (with brooms) and mechanically. Mechanicalsweeping vehicles usually clean only the main streetsin large urban centers. Although street wasteconstitutes a very small fraction of the overall wastestream, a significant portion of the work force for thewaste management is allocated for the streetcleanliness.

Retail market areaThere are two types of retail markets: permanent

and temporary. Since most of the permanent markets areadjacent to the roads and accessible by the handcarts;regarding to permanent markets the municipality mayprovide a truck to transport the wastes directly to finaldisposal site. For the temporary market, municipalityprovides handcarts to collect wastes from each shopand transport to transfer stations.

Fig. 4. Healthcare waste collection and transportation

Transfer station Transfer station is introduced for the purpose ofconvenience and to reduce the hauling distances forcollection trucks, thus lowering transportation costs.Some of the transfer stations are relatively modem;provided with attendants and equipped with mechanicaltransfers and waste compaction, whereas others aresimply a large steel container, concrete bin, and/or openspace. Generally, the transfer station is overloaded andit is difficult to maintain the cleanliness. However, themost popular is meeting points (rendez-vous points),that is places on the street where handcarts come andwait the coming truck for transferring waste from thehandcarts to waste truck. At the meeting points on thestreet that shown in Fig. 5. there are many problems asenvironmental pollution (leadchate from waste, badsmell, small sold waste spill, fly, etc), held up traffic,aesthetic city, etc.Healthcare waste, industrial waste and constructionwaste that applying direct collection and transportationsystem, so there are no transfer stations or meetingpoints.

Fig. 5. Transfer station (meeting point)


291


TransportationMunicipality is responsible for the haulage of

wastes to the final disposal facilities. The transportationvehicles are waste trucks with loading capacity rangingfrom 4 tons to 13 tons. This included forklift trucks,compression garbage trucks or general-purposestrucks. Besides, waste vessels and boats are used forcollection of waste in the canals and rivers (see Fig .6).Due to the scarcity of land, most of the cities, thedisposal sites are usually located outside of the city.There is no fixed route map for transportation. In bigcities, since the traffic is very heavy, travel time to thedisposal site is too long. Thus, daily average numberof roundtrips made by vehicle is only two or three.

Treatment and disposal systemComposting

Composting is the decomposition of organic wastesunder controlled conditions to produce soilconditioner, compost, or organic fertilizers. Compostingis potentially a very useful form of recycling of organicwaste, and could help to increase the recovery rate ofrecyclable materials. This could contribute to a moreefficient MSW system, but it is not yet widespread fora number of reasons, including inadequate attention tothe biological process requirements; poor feed stockand poor quality of the fertilizers; and poor marketingexperiences. Besides, old landfills have been utilizedas sources of composting product, organic wastenaturally decomposed in landfills.

Recently, many private companies initiate thecomposting in the cities. The composting technologyis a little difference. The typical technology for organicsolid waste composting as vermin-composting,presented in Fig. 7. The good quality fertilizer suppliedthe suitable nutrient components, it can sell to marketin high price of 30 USD/ton. These companies contractto the municipalities for treating compostable waste,and they can earn money as treatment fee based onamount of waste treated from municipalities (10 - 15USD/ton waste).

(a) Truck for waste Transportation (b) Boat for collecting waste on cannels and riversFig. 6. Main transportation vehicles of municipal solid waste in Vietnam

Burning and incinerationIncinerators are not commonly used by the

municipalities in Vietnam; it is only applied in a fewhospitals at the city level. Therefore, the healthcarewaste is primarily disposed to landfills. Although, theimplementation of incinerators is assessed by thegovernment concerning for technical standards andgas emissions, Vietnam does not have the technologyto analyze dioxin concentrations emitted by theincinerators (Dan and Viet, 2009). The existingincinerators are small capacity of 5 - 20 (tons/day)faced problems as they can not meet the standardsabout temperature and emission gases during thecombustion process. The major reasons are as the lowcalorific value of the healthcare waste caused start-upproblems, and fuel had to be added constantly tomaintain the combustion process.

Open burning at landfill sites are commonlypractice in few cities, especially in dry season to reducethe volume of waste at sites as well as to increase thecapacity of landfill sites. Besides, burning of waste athouseholds is practiced in urban and rural areas to ridthe household waste. These burnings emitted toxicpollutants caused serious environmental damage andmay endanger human health. Besides, accidental firesare often started at dumpsites caused spontaneouslyigniting methane gas produced during thedecomposition of organic matter.

LandfillingThe waste treatment and disposal alternatives inVietnam are implicit environmental and human risksby the poorly operated landfills and open dumps.

Generally, a municipality in Vietnam may have morethan one disposal sites (Table 5). As other countriesin Southeast and South Asia, open and controlleddumps are the dominant form of waste disposal inVietnam (Idris et al., 2004). Only 19.67% of cities/provincial capitals and 18.68% of total existing landfillsin whole country have engineered or sanitary landfills

292

Domestic waste

Cut and gr ind(reduce size)

Mixing (Moisture, pH, C/N,

temperature, etc.)

Aerobic composting (30-40 days)

Air Mixture

Mature composting (30 36 days)

Matured Compost Sieving Landfill

Matured compost

Fert

iliz

er

Adding N, P, K

Compostable

Non-compostable

Fig. 7. The typical composting technology in Vietnam

(World Bank, 2004). The existing unsanitary landfillshave being caused serious problems as odour, airpollution, contamination of surface/ground water andsoil, and other negative environmental impacts. Up todate, landfill leachate quality standards have not beenavailable in Vietnam. The leachate from the existingmunicipal landfills has very high concentration oforganic and nitrogen, although heavy metals contentis low and acceptable (Dan and Viet, 2009).

Self-disposal is common in areas with no collectionand disposal services. Households who do not haveaccess to collection and disposal services, they usetheir own means of waste disposal. This often resultsin waste being dumped in nearby rivers or lakes, ordiscarded at sites near homes.

Informal recycling systemRecycling is done mainly by the informal private

sector (e.g. waste pickers, collectors, garbage truckhelpers, scavengers, etc), and occurs at many points:the generation points, waste storages, collection,transfer points and at dumpsites (see Fig. 8). Wastereuse and recycling are already common practice inmany households, and they are also being separatedby junk-buyer, waste pickers, collectors or scavengers.They collect various materials including cardboard,plastics, glass bottles, scrap paper, scrap metals, etc.

The recyclables are sold to the distributors; next, theywill be cleaned, sorted, packaged the recyclable material,and preliminary process before reselling. However,recycling items reduces the quantity of wastessignificantly for transportation to final destination(Pham, 2009).These waste recycling factories andenterprises contribute significantly to reduce the wasteload. However, the technology for production is verylow technology, low investment cost, etc. Most ofthese factories and enterprises cause environmentaldamage and product low quality production.Rates of recovery and recycling in Vietnam are high;recyclable and reusable waste accounted approximately20% of MSW, which is higher than many Asian cities(World Bank, 2004). However, no information is availableon quantity and quality of recyclable waste at thenational level, city level and local level.

Legal systemVietnam has put in place a sound legal framework

for environmental protection that specificallyaddresses guidelines for the management and disposalof all waste streams. This framework is supported bytwo strategies that apply to solid waste management:(i) the Strategy for the Management of Solid Waste inVietnam Cities and Industrial Parks (1999), and (ii) theNational Strategy for Environmental Protection (2003).Moreover, the legal system supported by otherrelevant laws and policy documents such as decree,circular, joint circulation and standards.

Financial aspectMSW collection system is paid by community

citizens, the fee for MSW collection is as othercommunity fees. This fee varies from 5,000 VND 15,000VND (about US$ 0.3 - US$ 0.9) monthly perhousehold. The amount of collection fee depends onthe living condition of the residential area, it is decidedby among community members. Besides, themunicipality have to pay transportation and disposal

Table 5. Disposal systems in Vietnamese citiesN um be rs of c ities N u mb ers of land fill

s ites each city 6 0 42 1 4 2 1 3 3 4 2 5 1 8 2 10

(World Bank, 2004)


293


cost, this fee may vary from city to city. Every localenterprise (as URENCO) has to submit their annualbudget for transportation and disposal of MSW.Subsequently, at the end of year, they have to submittheir actual expenditure and return the excess amountto the municipality.

The financial budget for waste treatment andmanagement facilities subsidized by government;fortunately, Vietnam also received the subsidization frominternational donors as ODA projects on SWM. Thefinancial distribution for expenditure and investment onSWM are presented in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10. The financialfor SWM have been become the burden formunicipalities, although ODA projects supported a highpercentage of total investment for SWM.

Main cities as Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC); by 2005,the annual cost for operation and management of SWMsystem are equivalent to 0.35% of GDP of HCMC. Thecity council has to spent a huge amount of money forbuilding new domestic waste sanitary landfills,equipping/maintenance of machines and vehicles. Theconstruction cost for 1 ha of sanitary landfill is about160,000200,000 USD, and operation and maintenancecost for collection and disposal of 1 ton of solid wasteis estimated to be 5.06.5 USD. Solid waste managementcost has increased with the increase in solid wastequantity. It is about 1213% per year and becomes aburden for the city (Dan and Viet, 2009).

Assessment of prevailing situation and problemidentification:MSW management in Vietnam isbecoming more complex due to variety of reasons.The quantity of solid waste is increased by risingpopulation and increasing waste generation rate.

Waste Generation

Waste Storage

Waste Collec tion

Transportation Transfer

Waste Disposa l

Collection by household Junk buyers

Collection by Waste pickers

Collec tion by collectors

Collection by scavengers

Receivers

Brokers

P rocessors

Producers

Collec tion by collectors

Fig. 8. Recycling waste flowHowever the local governments are not adequatelyequipped to provide the proper service due to lack ofthe managerial capacity and resources required toshoulder the increasing responsibility. Thus, thegovernments in Vietnam face a big challenge to dealwith MSW management. The stage wise problemscould be identified in the following manners.

Lack of national policy and legal framework for MSWmanagement:The first step to improve the currentsituation is to work out a phased technical and legalframework for waste management. In which, each wastepolicy or legal framework is required that enablessetting of objectives and targets. A well-elaboratedlegal framework can assist in effective implementation.The legal framework should also include an effectiveenforcement system.

Lack coverage service for the waste collection,transfer and transportation: In general, the coveragecollection service provided by Vietnam municipalitiesvia URENCO is insufficiently carried out, especially inlow income and/or slum areas where the road is toonarrow or in the isolated sub-urban area. Furthermore,solid waste in rural areas are not collected and treatedby municipalities. Regarding transportation, it has beenobserved that general-purpose trucks are less efficientwhen compared with the specialized vehicles as far asthe time required for loading and unloading, and thequantity of solid waste being transported. Moreover,waste transportation by trucks at rush hours is lowefficient. The existing transfer stations are lackquantity/capacity, old technology, unsuitable location,and environmental pollution. Besides, waste collection,transportation and transfer facilities lack theparticipation of private sectors.

294

Fig. 9. Financial budget sharing on waste management(World Bank, 2004)

Fig. 10. Expenditure and Investment on Wastemanagement

(World Bank, 2004)

The use of improper waste storage at the generationpoints: Most of waste storage at generation points isopen bins and temporary containers; in which wastesare easily carried by fly, rats and other rodents. Improperwaste storage can because the drainage clogged upand lead to the flood. Both problems will propagatemore if the waste is not picked up regularly.

Less encouragement for the composting at communitylevel: Recently, many private companies initiate thecomposting in the communities. However, they are notsupported the substance and policy by the municipality.The companies only receive treatment fee via contractsbetween them and municipality, however this fee cannotpay off for treatment process. Besides, sometimes theyhave insufficient market to sell the compost product.The existing composting plants may not operateproperly for various reasons (e.g. technical issues, lackof market, comparably low quality of compost product).

Lack of appropriate final disposal practices: Pooroperation of the final disposal site mainly operated asopen dumping, which is resulted in the leakage ofleachate to the surrounding areas, affected serious tosurface and ground water. Self burning of wastecontributes significantly to air pollution. Moreover,Vietnam currently does not have hazardous waste(healthcare waste and industrial waste) treatmentfacilities that can meet safety and environmentalstandards (Thai, 2009). Waste picking at final disposalmay not only disturb the waste pickers health but alsoreduce the efficiency of site operation such as wasteunloading and spreading, soil covering, andcompaction offsite.

Strategic actions:MSW management should beimproved by adopting multi-pronged strategy. It wouldbe necessary to clean the generation areas, widencollection system, adopt cost effective transportation,recover the resources from the waste and treat thefinally proper disposals of the waste in theenvironmentally compatible manners. Knowledge onMSW management is significant for citizens in thecommunities, it would be necessary to make them aware

for their responsibility and seek their participation inkeeping environmental cleanness. Accordingly, sixmajor areas for strategic actions have been identifiedand discussed below.

Collection and transportation: The efficiency of MSWcollection and transportation should be improvedthrough increasing coverage of collection area, costeffective transportation by the use of vehicles andscheduled transportation system. The increasedcoverage may reduce the waste quantity disposedthrough improper way such as dumping into rivers,banks, ditches, etc; thereby protecting theenvironmental quality.

Intermediate treatment: It is considered thatcomposting is appropriate for MSW generated inVietnam which is dominated by organic wastes. Thetechnical assistance and financial support should beprovided by national and local government to improvethe existing composting plants and to encouragecomposting at household level. The composting atsource may help municipality to deal with the limitationof budget for transportation and disposal.

Final disposal: Land use plan should make a provisionfor landfill facilities as per the various sources of MSWgeneration. Municipalities with scarcity of land couldshare the site with their neighbor cities with clearunderstanding on sharing the responsibility. For SWMprojects, the public should be involved in the projectat beginning to promote their acceptance. Thegovernment should prohibit the development of newopen dumping and improve the existing landfill site.

Institutional and financial aspects: Financially, thesystem could be more stable through public-privatepartnership. For this, it would be necessary to developappropriate institutional arrangement so that therewould be assured commercial viability for privatesector as well as fulfilling the social responsibility bythe public sector. With careful consideration of incomelevel and regional variety, existing MSW managementfee can be redesigned for better service.


Tabl

e 6. S

trat

egic

act

ions

of m

unic

ipal

solid

was

te m

anag

emen

t in

Vie

tnam

Aspe

cts

Shor

t ter

m

Long

term

Colle

ctio

n and

tra

nspo

rtatio

n

- In

crea

sing c

over

age

with

due

cons

ider

to th

e ex

istin

g co

llect

ion a

nd

trans

porta

tion.

-

Incr

easin

g num

ber o

f was

te tr

ansfe

r stat

ions f

or ef

fectiv

e coll

ectio

n.

- Re

sear

chin

g the

capa

city

of co

llecti

on ve

hicle

for e

ffect

ive tr

ansp

ortat

ion.

-

Timi

ng/sc

hedu

ling

and

vehi

cle r

outin

g fo

r was

te co

llect

ion

and

trans

porta

tion.

- Im

prov

ing c

over

age

grad

ually

alon

g wi

th pr

omoti

on o

f pub

lic a

ware

ness

. -

App

roac

hing

the p

rivat

izatio

n of c

ollec

tion

and t

ransp

orta

tion

serv

ice f

or be

tter

effic

ienc

y.

- Pr

omot

ing t

he se

para

tion

colle

ctio

n fo

r effe

ctive

util

izatio

n of

recy

clable

mate

rial.

- Es

tabli

shin

g m

oder

n tra

nsfe

r stat

ion b

y ut

ilizi

ng o

ld m

eetin

g po

ints.

Inter

med

iate t

reatm

ent

- Pr

ovid

ing

techn

ical

assis

tanc

e and

fina

ncia

l sup

port

for c

ompo

sting

in e

ach

mun

icip

al.

- Im

prov

ing

and

reha

bilit

ating

of e

xisti

ng c

ompo

sting

plan

t -

Enco

urag

ing

appl

icatio

n of i

ndiv

idua

l com

posti

ng at

each

hou

seho

ld.

- In

crea

sing c

ost r

ecov

ery

for o

perat

ion a

nd m

ainte

nanc

e.

- In

trodu

cing

recy

cling

facil

ities

on

vario

us m

ateria

ls.

- Es

tabli

shin

g su

fficie

nt m

arke

t for

con

sum

ing

of th

e com

posti

ng p

rodu

ct.

- O

rgan

izin

g rec

yclin

g ro

utes

for r

ecyc

labl

e mate

rials.

-

Incr

easin

g co

nsid

erati

on o

f ef

fecti

vely

cen

traliz

ed co

mpo

sting

facil

ities

Fina

l disp

osal

- Li

miti

ng th

e op

en b

urni

ng at

land

fill s

ites a

nd h

ouse

hold

s. -

Impr

ovin

g fo

r the

oper

atio

nal m

anag

emen

t of e

xisti

ng in

ciner

ators

and

build

ing p

rope

r inc

iner

ation

tech

nolo

gies

for h

ealth

care

was

te an

d ha

zard

ous

waste

. -

Proh

ibiti

ng st

rictly

illeg

al d

umpi

ng.

- Im

prov

ing

the o

pera

tiona

l man

agem

ent o

f exi

sting

land

fill s

ites,

espe

cially

pr

oper

soil

cove

r, ba

d sm

ell, a

nd le

acha

te tr

eatm

ent.

- Bu

ildin

g and

exp

andi

ng sa

nita

ry la

ndfil

l to p

reve

nt th

e disc

harg

e of

pollu

tant

s fro

m la

ndfil

l site

-

Build

ing c

onse

nsus

for r

egio

nal l

andf

ill a

mon

g th

e con

tribu

ting

mun

icip

alitie

s.

- R

esea

rchin

g pr

oper

recl

amat

ion p

lan f

or u

sing

landf

ill si

tes.

- U

tiliz

ing t

he m

ethan

e gas

pro

duce

d in

the l

andf

ill as

ene

rgy

reco

very

. -

Esta

blish

ing

mod

ern

landf

ill te

chno

logi

es b

y util

izing

old

open

dum

ping.

-

App

roac

hing

Clea

n De

velop

men

t Mec

hani

sm (C

DM) t

o cr

edit

Certi

fied

Emis

sion

Red

uctio

ns (C

ER) f

or ea

rnin

g m

oney

. -

Dev

elop

ing

proj

ects

on in

cine

ratio

n for

trea

ting h

azar

dous

and

indu

strial

was

tes.

- Se

lectin

g su

itabl

e site

and

inves

ting i

nfra

struc

ture

for s

olid

was

te tr

eatm

ent a

nd

disp

osal

sites

. -

Buil

ding

cent

raliz

ed a

nd sh

ared

facil

ities

for p

rope

r tre

atm

ent o

f haz

ardou

s was

tes w

ith

feas

ible

techn

olog

ies.

Insti

tutio

nal a

nd fi

nanc

ial

aspe

cts

- Es

tabl

ishin

g an i

nstit

ution

al sy

stem

for p

rom

otin

g 3R

facil

ities

by

inter

naliz

ing i

nfor

mal

recy

clin

g sys

tem.

- In

trodu

cing

tarif

f sys

tem b

ased

on v

ariou

s rec

yclab

le w

astes

. -

Intro

duci

ng in

cent

ive s

chem

e in

MSW

man

agem

ent a

ctivi

ties t

o priv

ate

sect

ors.

- In

crea

sing h

uman

reso

urce

deve

lopm

ent t

hrou

gh sp

ecial

ized

train

ing a

t va

rious

leve

ls of

the e

xisti

ng S

WM

insti

tutio

ns.

- In

crea

sing i

nves

tmen

t in o

pera

tion

and

main

tenan

ce o

f SW

M sy

stem

s.

- Es

tabli

shin

g de

posit

syst

em fo

r pro

moti

ng 3

R fa

ciliti

es at

loca

l lev

el.

- Su

bsid

ing

for p

rivate

secto

r eng

aged

in 3R

acti

vitie

s. -

Esta

blish

ing

priv

ate s

ecto

rs in

MSW

man

agem

ent s

ervi

ces.

-

Cou

rting

and u

tiliz

ing t

raini

ng, e

xcha

nge o

f exp

erien

ce, t

echn

olog

y tra

nsfe

r and

te

chni

cal a

ssist

ance

fund

ed b

y go

vern

men

t, NG

Os, i

nter

natio

nal o

rgan

izati

ons,

etc.

- In

crea

sing

fee l

evel

and

fee c

ollec

tion

rate.

Publ

ic pa

rticip

atio

n and

En

viro

nmen

tal e

duca

tion

- In

crea

sing p

ublis

h aw

aren

ess i

n en

viro

nmen

tal sa

nitar

y thr

ough

com

mun

ity

med

ia -

Initi

ating

envi

ronm

ental

educ

ation

for p

rimar

y pup

ils, s

tude

nts.

- In

crea

sing p

ublic

par

ticipa

tion

on w

aste

colle

ction

as w

ell a

s the

mon

thly

fee.

- Ex

pand

ing

Natio

nal m

onito

ring o

f soli

d was

te to

urb

an ar

eas.

- En

cour

agin

g pu

blic

parti

cipa

tion

for i

mpro

ving

the w

aste

stor

age w

ithin

cove

r.- Im

plem

entin

g en

viro

nmen

tal e

duca

tion

for e

ach

level

of ed

ucati

on sy

stem

. -

Esta

blish

ing

waste

recy

clin

g sys

tem a

t sou

rce a

nd lo

cal l

evel

. -

Dev

elop

ing

of c

omm

unity

bas

ed w

aste

man

agem

ent s

yste

m.

- Sh

arin

g ex

perie

nces

in w

aste

min

imiza

tion,

recy

clin

g, re

use,

and

com

posti

ng.

Legi

slatio

n an

d po

licies

- Se

tting

up

mas

ter p

lans f

or do

mes

tic, i

ndus

trial

and h

azar

dous

was

te m

anag

emen

t for

nea

r fut

ure.

- Re

sear

chin

g and

impl

emen

ting t

he pi

lot p

roje

cts fo

r was

te se

para

tion a

t so

urce

. -

Rese

arch

ing a

nd se

tting

up

the s

olid

was

te ch

arge

syste

m fo

r col

lectio

n,

trans

porta

tion.

-

Stre

ngth

enin

g ins

pect

ion a

nd e

nfor

cem

ent a

ctivi

ties o

n so

lid w

aste

facil

ities

co

ncer

ning

. -

Enha

ncin

g haz

ardo

us w

aste

man

agem

ent r

egul

atio

ns an

d pra

ctice

s.

- Se

tting

up p

olic

ies o

n priv

ate se

ctor o

f SW

M

- Es

tabli

shin

g an

d m

odify

ing l

egal

doc

umen

ts fo

r pro

mot

ing th

e exi

sting

SW

M sy

stem

in

detai

l as w

aste

sepa

ratio

n, co

llect

ion,

tran

spor

tatio

n, tr

ansf

er, d

ispos

al an

d re

cycle

. -

Esta

blish

ing

and

unify

ing t

he gu

ideli

ne fo

r was

te an

alysis

, mon

itorin

g m

ethod

, cl

assif

icatio

n cata

logu

es, a

nd o

ther

requ

irem

ents.

-

App

lying

and

expa

ndin

g the

succ

essf

ul p

rojec

ts of

was

te se

para

tion a

t sou

rce f

or fr

om

begi

nnin

g pi

lot pr

ojec

ts.

- R

esea

rchin

g an

d im

plem

entin

g re

loca

tion

of h

eavy

pol

lutio

n in

dustr

ies.

- Es

tabli

shin

g tre

atmen

t gui

delin

e fo

r haz

ardo

us w

aste

from

var

ious

sour

ces.


295

Public participation and environmental education: Topromote public participation in the MSW managementas far as the cleanliness and waste discharge from eachhousehold is concerned, the environmental educationis quite important. Usually, the adult may not be easilymotivated and the opportunity for taking education isrestr icted if compared with the children. Theenvironmental education for children can beeffectively carried out, especially by introducing relatedsubjects in school curricula. Therefore, environmentaleducation on SWM is proposed to be implemented forschool children in Vietnam.

Legislation and policies: The legislation and policies forenvironmental management is being developed andimplemented in Vietnam. Based on the existing legaldocuments and policies those promote the environmentalmanagement; especially, solid waste field for sustainabledevelopment should be rehabilitated existing issues, setup and established new issues for suitable implementationswith the current status and further requests. Besides, theregulation suffers from major gaps in enforcement andweakness of institutional framework, such as unclearmandates, fragmented and overlapping roles of variousgovernment agencies, and limited interagency coordination.As a result, the state oversight of solid waste isinsufficient.In order to achieve the improvement, a detailedaction plan is presented in Table 6.

CONCLUSIONAs the strong economic growth, urbanization and

industrialization rates in the recent years, Vietnam havepromoted the issue of solid waste management to thetop of environmental challenges. Solid wastegeneration in Vietnam is increasing rapidly; the mainsource of waste is domestic that contain high organiccontent. The waste storage is not similar that causefor uncollected waste in public place, except thehealthcare waste container. There is also a lack ofproper space to place transfer stations and there is nofixed route map for transportation. However, wastecollection is satisfactory (7090%) compared to theprocessing of collected waste and the mainly collectingvehicles are handcarts. Besides, URENCO is not cover100% of the collection areas and the remaining isconducted by private sectors. In order to improve thecollection, transportation, transfer and disposal ofsolid waste in Vietnam, URENCO and private sectorsshould work together and improve the existinglegislation and policies on waste management.

In order to improve the situation, there is an urgentneed to act strategically on improving of overall MSWmanagement system. The strategic actions includevariety of management aspects such as collection andtransportation, intermediate treatment, final disposal,institutional and financial aspects, public participation

and environmental education, and legislation andpolicies. Moreover, the efficiency of MSW collectionand transportation should be improved throughincreasing the coverage and to find cost effective system.A composting is the most appropriate treatment forMSW generated in Vietnam and it needs to be promotedfurther. Final disposal with an open dumping practiceshould be strictly prohibited and accordingly there is aneed to improve the existing sites. Public-privatepartnership is required to ensure sustainability of MSWmanagement system. The insertion of environmentaleducation into school curricula could be an effectiveway to promote public awareness on MSW.

Moreover, Waste in Vietnam contained high ratesof organic matter and moisture content, waste to energyfacilities in the form of composting plants and bio-gasrecovery landfills may be the most viable option. The3 Rs reduce, reuse and recycle method of wasteminimization can also be used to address the growingwaste problem. The recycling sector in Vietnam is veryactive, providing a good basis for increasing rates ofreuse and recycling. Another method that is currentlynot practiced on a wide-scale is the sorting of trash whether at the source or before it reaches the landfills.Waste minimization may be the most feasible schemebecause it requires the least capital investment andrelies mainly on either the waste operators and/or thewaste generators.

REFERENCESDan, N. P. and Viet, N. T. (2009). Status and strategies onsolid waste management in Ho Chi Minh City. Int. J.Environment and Waste Management, 4 ( 3/4), 412-421.

Idris, A., Inanc, B. and Hassan, M. N. (2004). Overview ofwaste disposal and landfills/dumps in Asian countries.Journal of Mater Cycles Waste Manag., 6, 104-110.

MOC, (2003). Ministry of Construction, The master planto develop municipal solid waste until 2025 of the Ho ChiMinh City. Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee (inVietnamese).

Pham, S. L. (2007). Handling of Solid Waste in Vietnam.Proceeding of the 4th Civil Engineering Conference in theAsian Region (ACECC). 26-28 June, Taipei, Taiwan.

Thai, N. T. K. (2009). Hazardous industrial wastemanagement in Vietnam: current status and future direction.J. Mater Cycles Waste Manag., 11, 258-262.

Viet, L. H., Ngan, N. V. C., Hoang, N. X, Quynh, D. N.,Songkasri, W., Stefan, C. and Commins, T. (2009). Legaland institutional framework for solid waste management inVietnam. As. J. Energy Environ.,10 (4), 261-272.

World Bank, (1999). What a waste: Solid waste managementin Asia. The World Bank Report. Urban Development SectorUnit, East Asia and Pacific Region, World Bank, USA.

World bank, (2004). Vietnam Ministry of Environment andNatural Resources, Canadian International DevelopmentAgency, Viet Nam Environment Monitor: Solid Waste.


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