HCM City is drawing up a master plan on solid waste management and treatment for the next five years, aiming to have 100% of its domestic solid waste to be collected and treated and at least 80% of solid household waste classified at source.

Those who discharge more waste or fail to classify their rubbish could pay higher environmental fees.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment plans to change the way solid waste is classified at source to suit treatment technologies, its chief has said.

The way we design, produce, transform, use and dispose of plastic needs rethinking due to the vast release of the plastic waste into the ocean, and innovative circular economy approaches could be one way to go, experts have said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has issued a national action plan on marine plastic waste management by 2030 that aims to reduce 75 percent of plastic debris in the ocean in the next 10 years.

Hanoi has opened many sanitary waste collection points, but the capital city is still at risk of being flooded with garbage.

Businesses which reuse materials are the lifeline of Vietnam’s environmental future, a workshop in Hanoi was told on Wednesday.

Vietnam has investors who are willing to develop waste treatment plants, but startups, when contacting local authorities, are told that there is no waste to treat, says Dang Huy Dong, former Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau has approved Con Dao District’s proposal to ship domestic solid waste from the island to a landfill on the mainland.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The amount of solid waste in Vietnam has kept surging with more complicated components as a result of increasing population and human activities, according to a report released.

 VietNamNet Bridge – In a rather sudden and widely applauded move, HCM City authorities have issued regulations forcing the city’s folk to start separating their solid waste at source.

VietNamNet Bridge - More than 77 percent of solid waste in Vietnam is buried, while 80 percent of landfills are unhygienic. 

VietNamNet Bridge - In many shrimp cultivation areas, farmers are not treating waste water from shrimp ponds, but are allowing untreated waste water to go directly into the environment.

Local authorities are trying to find advanced technologies for their waste treatment projects, but they appear to be satisfied with superficial solutions that do not treat the problem in a sustainable way. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Landfills remain the basic waste treatment method in Hanoi, causing serious pollution and a waste of land.

VietNamNet Bridge - The increase in population and different kinds of production in the country have led to an increase in solid waste. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Hanoi needs investment to apply new comprehensive measures to sort waste at source, organize waste collection, and treat waste with modern technologies.

VietNamNet Bridge – Associate Professor Dr Dang Thi Cam Ha, a former chief of the Environmental Biotechnology Department of the Institute of Biotechnology, was honoured with the 2015 Kovalevskaya for her research on environmental protection,

VietNamNet Bridge – A new app has been created to help people find what they need and share what they have.