The Saigon Times

Waste collection vehicles are seen on a street in HCMC. The city will need nearly VND29 trillion in the next five years to implement a solid waste treatment scheme - PHOTO: TNO

HCMC – HCMC will need nearly VND29 trillion in the next five years to implement a solid waste treatment scheme, which is aimed at enhancing the management, classification, collection, and recycling of solid waste in the city.

The city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment has just sent to the municipal government a scheme to treat solid waste by 2025 with a vision toward 2050. The scheme will be sent to the Ministry of Construction for appraisal and then to the Prime Minister for approval after it receives a green light from the city government.

The scheme will be financed by the city’s budget, official development assistance loans, and other private sources. Of the total funding, approximately VND14.5 trillion will be used for technology transfer activities to treat solid waste, VND5 trillion for building a waste treatment plant, VND3 trillion for developing waste transfer stations, VND1.2 trillion for setting up waste collection points along roads and VND500 billion for arranging waste collector teams.

According to goals set by the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment, all industrial and medical waste shall be collected and treated by 2025; 90% of construction waste will be treated, with 60% recycled. By 2023, 60% of households in the city are expected to sort waste at source and the figure could jump up yearly.

Around 9,300 tons of household waste are daily discharged in the city. In February this year, the municipal government passed an adjusted plan to classify waste at source into two groups: recyclable and the rest, instead of the previous three groups: organic, inorganic, recyclable. The change was made to be in line with the waste-to-energy technology currently adopted by the city and to reduce landfill waste.