Solid Waste Management in Vietnam : Current situation, challenges and strategies for development

Abstract

Vietnam has seen many changes in economy. Together with the development in economy, many urban areas have been built; thus, urbanization rate in Vietnam is very quick. These changes within 2 decades have brought many environmental challenges to Vietnamese as well as the authorities. In this thesis, many aspects in solid waste management are studied. Firstly, the paper starts with a quick overview of how society and economy in Vietnam has been changing and how solid waste is generated in the country. Then, the aspects on how the governmental institutes are legally responsible in solid waste management are shown. The most important part in this paper is solid waste treatment technologies that have been practiced recently in Vietnam, the good and bad sides of those methods. It is followed by a study of European Union’s directives in two main waste treatment methods, incineration and landfilling. Together with that, a list of all major important parameters in organic waste treatment technologies are mentioned. Finally, the paper ends with a number of proposing action for the development of waste management system in Vietnam.