Vietnam is one of the 20 largest producers of waste in the world, discharging approximately 60,000 metric tons of garbage per day, higher than the world average level, a local official said last week.

Urban waste accounts for some 60 percent of the total, Phan Xuan Thuy, deputy head of the Commission for Information and Education of the Communist Party of Vietnam, told an online conference on waste management and reduction in Hanoi on March 7.

Thuy observed that inadequate waste sorting practices pose challenges for many localities in the country, hindering the effective separation, treatment, recycling, and reduction of plastic waste, which is now being discharged in larger quantities.

He cited data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as saying that about 64 percent of household garbage in Vietnam goes to landfill, with treatment of only some 20 percent meeting hygienic requirements.

Ta Dinh Thi, deputy head of the National Assembly (NA) Committee on Science, Technology, and Environment, attributed the rising amount of waste to the inadequate ability of relevant units in waste management, sorting, collection, transporting, and treatment.

The lack of environmental awareness among local residents is also the main reason behind the issue, Thi added.

In 2020, the lawmaking NA passed the Law on Environmental Protection, featuring breakthrough policies to enhance solid waste management, promote the circular economy, extend producer responsibility, and foster the environmental industry, Thi continued.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has issued policies on household solid waste sorting so that local authorities can provide residents with detailed guidelines on household waste classification, according to Hoang Van Thuc, head of the ministry’s Department of Environmental Pollution Control.

For better household waste management in the long run, Ha Sy Dong, vice-chairman of the administration of Quang Tri Province in central Vietnam, suggested that every province and city should be given technical support and briefed on international experience in waste treatment.

In Quang Tri, where some 90 percent of the locales were encouraged to make proper household waste treatment a habit, their limited resources have challenged plastic waste sorting, treatment, recycling, and reduction, Dong elaborated.

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