Workers sort waste at a treatment factory (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) –The fact that waste is not classified at source was the biggest challenge totreating it in Vietnam, experts said.
Vu Thi Vinh, former General Secretary of the Association of Cities of Vietnam,said the volume of waste is rising, raising the need for proper managementotherwise the health of the whole community is at risk.
It was calculated that a total of 15.6 million tonnes of solid waste wascollected nationwide in 2015. This has increased 9 percent per year, in linewith the economic growth rate. In other words, the amount of waste risesis parallel with the people’s living standards.
About 30 percent of the total collected volume in rural areas is treated atfertiliser production units - and the remaining 70 percent is burieddirectly.
The common practice of solid waste management in Vietnam is landfilling.
However, only 120 sites surveyed met the hygiene standard, according to a2017 report from Japan International Cooperation Agency.
The country had 660 landfills with scale of more than 1ha by the end of 2016,it said.
Specifically, most of waste at landfills is not classified at source. Theyoccupy a lot of land, generating large amounts of waste water due to a lack ofa collection and treatment system.
The report also revealed that landfills were overloaded and 179 out of 407sites in the survey have capacity to receive waste within four years.
Addressing a forum on innovative technological solution of solid wastemanagement toward low-carbon economy held in Hanoi earlier this week, Vinh saidthe report was a warning. She also underlined the importance of choosing theright waste treatment technology suitable with each region.
Phung Chi Sy, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Association for Conservation ofNature and Environment, said waste-to-energy is considered a new trend inVietnam.
Many localities including HCM City, Hanoi and Can Tho have granted orconsidered granting licences to waste-to-energy plants.
Waste-to-energy technology is considered by HCM City authority as the mainsolution as it is expected that the volume of solid waste treated by thistechnology will increase to 55 percent by 2020 and 85 percent by 2030.
The city currently treats 8,900 tonnes of solid waste per day, with around 69percent buried, according to the HCM city’s Department of NaturalResources and Environment. Every day, it also treats 1,500 tonnes of industrialwaste, 374 tonnes of hazardous waste and 22 tonnes of medical waste.
Nguyen Toan Thang, Director of the department, said that domestic waste in thecity was projected to increase between 6-8 percent per year. It means that morethan 10,000 tonnes will be discharged each day by 2020 and 16,500 tonnes by2030. With the technology, more than 200MW (megawatts) of electricity could begenerated between 2019-2030 period.
To attract investors, the city said it would offer preferential policies suchas 70 percent reduction of land rent, land for infrastructure, price supportfor energy pricing, support of loan interest, and favourable tax policies.
Over the past several years, waste-to-energy from developed countries such as theUS, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, the Republic of Korea, Japan have beenimporting in to Vietnam. It has been applied in a number of waste treatmentprojects in some localities through foreign investment or Official DevelopmentAssistance.
However, most of these plants have failed to meet expectation or run at fullcapacity.
The main reason was that garbage did not classified at source, Vinhtold Nguoidothi.net.
To improve the effectiveness of solid waste treatment, she said it wasnecessary to have a policy and detailed plan to boost sorting garbage atsource.
She also said favourable conditions should be offered to private investorsengaged in solid waste treatment plants.
Nguyen Quang, Director of United Nations Human Settlements DevelopmentProgramme in Vietnam (UN Habitat Vietnam) shared the views, saying muchattention should be paid to the community’s role in sorting of waste at thesource because it will reduce the costs of waste treatment.
“A financial mechanism was needed to encourage private investors to pour moneyin technology to handle daily activities,” he said.
According to Pham Chi Sy, in comparison with other technology, waste-to-energyhas a lot of advantages including reducing 90-95 percent of volume, utilisingof energy, water pollution and greenhouse gas emission reduction.
“With high capital and operating costs which is 4-6 times higher than currentburial technology, preferential policies for waste-to energy technology can bea big motivation to attract investors,” he said.
Because 60 to 80 percent of waste is organic one with high humidity at average50 -60 percent or up to 80 percent in rainy season, and the fact that garbagenot sort at source, it is costly – between 50-75 USD to treat 1 tonne of waste,Sy added.-VNS/VNA
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