Classifying solid waste to turn it into electricity

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam has issued many legal documents on environmental protection, however, waste treatment has not been effective and remains a difficult problem in many localities.

Many experts believed that to turn waste into resources, as defined in the Sustainable Green Economy and Circular Economy Development Strategy, the key is that localities concertedly deploy waste classification at its source.

They must focus on effective cooperation in waste management to invest in waste incineration technology to generate electricity.

Reduce landfilled waste

Nguyen Quang Huan, National Assembly (NA) deputy of Binh Duong province and member of the NA’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, said Vietnam releases about 60,000 tonnes of household waste every day, of which about 60% is from urban areas.

A report from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment showed that over 70% of household waste is currently buried, of which less than 20% is landfilled properly. The unsanitary landfilled waste is daily polluting the soil, water and air.

This problem is even more serious in large cities. Typically, in Hanoi, the amount of urban household waste is about 7,000 tonnes per day.

The city’s Nam Son landfill is overloaded and a number of investors registered to build waste treatment facilities, but so far the capital city has only one waste incineration plant to generate electricity.

Similarly, in Ho Chi Minh City, about 10,000 tonnes of urban household waste is generated every day. The city has called on investors to treat waste for decades, but it still mainly uses landfills. Most landfills are about to be overloaded, causing serious environmental pollution, especially Da Phuoc landfill.

Faced with this reality, the Prime Minister has issued the National Environmental Protection Strategy to 2030, with a vision until 2050.

The strategy sets the target that by 2025, the amount of urban domestic solid waste buried in landfills will be less than 30% of the total waste, dropping to less than 10% by 2030.

To conduct the roadmap, localities must well operate waste treatment facilities.

Recently, voters in many localities have continuously sent petitions to the MONRE requesting specific plans and measures to limit the landfilling of household solid waste.

The MONRE replied that Decree 08/2022/ND-CP issued on January 10, 2022 regulated that when provinces carry out new investment or open a solid waste treatment facility, priority should be given to modern and environmentally friendly technology.

Turning trash into electricity

A spokesperson from the MONRE said that Vietnam has about 1,712 domestic solid waste treatment facilities, including 467 domestic solid waste incinerators, 38 compost production lines and about 1,207 landfills.

In recent years, localities have begun to focus on solid waste treatment technology to recover energy.

By the beginning of this year, three waste incineration and power generation plants have begun operation, in Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Can Tho.

Fifteen projects for such plants are under construction in HCM City, Da Nang, Thua Thien-Hue, Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh.

The MONRE thus emphasised that solid waste management requires the cooperation of administrations at different levels, sectors, people, businesses and the entire society.

In the coming time, concerned organisations will step up education to raise community awareness about classifying solid waste, changing people's mindset and building an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Authorities will promote inspection on solid waste collection, transport and treatment to promptly detect and handle violations.

Effective cooperation

From the perspective of international partners, Yoshida Satoshi, Director of the Department of International Resource Circulation under the Japanese Ministry of Environment, said that Japan had supported waste management in Vietnam and achieved certain results.

Notably, Japan supported Bac Ninh and Binh Duong provinces to build waste incineration plants to recover energy.

At the recent sixth meeting on waste management and 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) between the MONRE and the Japanese ministry, the two sides agreed to continue their cooperation.

They will conduct waste-to-energy projects in the two provinces, and support similar projects in Dong Nai, Thanh Hoa, Khanh Hoa and Tien Giang.

Nguyen Thanh Lam, an expert from the Pollution Control Department under the MONRE, suggested that the two sides should perfect policies and regulations on domestic solid waste, support waste classification, organise training activities, and introduce waste treatment technology; and propose a model of recycling and treating household solid waste combined with energy recovery which is suitable for different regions.

NA deputy Nguyen Quang Huan suggested localities research and choose appropriate technologies before bidding.

Investors could pilot a project in one locality with a processing scale of 1,000-2,000 tonnes per day, then expand to other localities, he added./.