Illustrative image (Source: VNA) The plan calls for re-use and recycling of waste by using advancedwaste treatment technologies instead of burying waste.
Such advanced technologies will save land use and constructioncosts for new waste treatment facilities.
The plan creates an inter-district network of entrepots usingadvanced technologies to meet demand for collection, transport and treatment ofsolid waste.
The plan also identifies facilities and areas of potentialoperation to meet demand for the entire city.
Covering 30,400sq.km with around 18 million people, the areasunder the scheme border the provinces of Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria – Vung Tau,Tay Ninh, Long An and Tien Giang.
All of these areas discharge 9,000 to 9,500 tonnes of solid wasteper day, including 7,500 to 8,000 tonnes a day from household activities, aswell as 1,500 tonnes a day from construction works.
The volume of solid waste from household activities has increasedby 7 to 8 percent annually in these areas.
Hazardous solid waste is around 150,000 tonnes per year, including6,300 tonnes of hazardous healthcare waste per year.
Around 7,200 to 7,500 tonnes of household waste, or over 90 percentof solid waste from households, are collected and transported to wastetreatment complexes every day.
However, the solid waste is not sorted, making it difficult forwaste treatment facilities to recycle or re-use.
Burying waste remains the main means of disposal, accounting for75 percent of the city’s daily waste discharges. Fifteen percent of waste istreated with compost recycling technology and five to 10 percent with wasteburning technology.
HCM authorities said the high rate of waste burial poses risks topublic health and to the environment.
As the city has no large recycling plants, solid waste has to bepurchased and sorted at nearly 1,000 small-scale and household facilities andrecycled at 10 recycling plants.
The city has two treatment complexes, the 614-ha Da Phuoc Complexin Binh Chanh district’s Da Phuoc commune and the Phuoc Hiep Complex in Cu Chi district’sPhuoc Hiep commune.
City authorities have plans to reduce the area of the Phuoc HiepWaste Treatment Complex from its current 687ha to 533ha.
Two other complexes, 45-ha Dong Thanh Complex in Hoc Mon districtand the 25-ha Go Cat Complex in Binh Chanh district, were closed in the pastdecade.
Speaking at a meeting with a delegation from the People’s Councillast week, Huynh Thi Lan Phuong, deputy director of the Vietnam WasteSolutions, a licensed Vietnamese corporation fully owned by California WasteSolutions, said the increase in waste volume treated at Da Phuoc Complex hadexerted pressure on the plant. Around 3,000 to 5,000 tonnes are treated eachday.
In order to reduce the volume of waste treated at Da Phuoc, VietnamWaste Solutions will invest in another waste-burning plant which can treat 1,500tonnes of waste per day, Phuong said.
The treated waste will be used to make by-products such aselectric power, VNG gas, compost and organic fertiliser.-VNA
VNA
