Vietnamplus

Almost all landfills in Hanoi are at bursting point – overloaded with garbage and causing a serious headache for local authorities.

Ho Chi Minh City plans to treat garbage buried at three non-active landfills, the municipal People’s Committee has said.

Indonesia plans tighter rules to stem a surge in imports of plastic waste.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan on April 8 asked the northern province of Hai Duong to reduce the practice of burying of waste and called for more investors to building waste treatment plants using advanced technology.

The application of new waste treatment technologies is now a national urgent requirement amidst the mounting waste volume and shortcomings of current disposal methods, heard a seminar held in Hanoi on December 21.

The fact that waste is not classified at source was the biggest challenge to treating it in Vietnam, experts said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently approved a target programme on tackling seriously-polluting public welfare facilities for 2016-2020.

The Dong Thanh rubbish dump in Ho Chi Minh City has been converted into an orchard, drastically improving the environment in the surrounding neighbourhood.

With tonnes of waste discarded directly into fields, lakes and ponds or dumped on roadsides for years, the northern province of Vinh Phuc has a serious pollution problem.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have agreed to build a large-scale project on producing electricity from waste, aiming to cut the volume of buried waste by 50 percent by 2020.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities are calling for investment in the form of public private partnerships to build golf courses, parks, trade centres or property projects on three closed landfill sites.

Hanoi authorities have approved a construction waste recycling project that can replace some of the materials used in building pavements and rural roads.

Owners of landfills in the city will have to open them for periodical monitoring by people, said Le Van Khoa, Vice Chairman of HCM City’s People’s Committee.

Some 80 percent of construction landfills along the capital city’s riverbanks are operating without licences, according to the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.