Hanoi(VNS/VNA) - The amount of solid waste in Vietnam has kept surging with morecomplicated components as a result of increasing population and humanactivities, according to a report released.

But treating the waste and reducing its harmful impacts on the environmentstill poses challenges to local authorities.

A General Statistics Office of Vietnam report on solid waste collection andtreatment revealed nearly 20 percent of solid waste in the country was nottreated properly following national standards.

In 2017, as many as 37,800 tonnes of solid waste were collected. About 31,600tonnes were treated after collection. That means more than 6,000 tonnes ofwaste were left untreated, not to mention large quantity of solid waste beingdischarged every day without collection and treatment.

The Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA) classifies solid wasteinto different categories depending on purposes of human activities includingdomestic waste, urban waste, agricultural waste, industrial waste and medical waste.

Solid waste can also be classified depending onthe source, chemical components or waste recycling and treatment technologies.

According to a study conducted by VEA’senvironment monitoring centre in the northern region, the amount of solid wastedischarged by urban areas has increased by 10 to 16 percent on average eachyear.

The more urbanised and industrialised the cities are, the more solid waste isreleased, the report added.

The total solid waste amount released in Hanoi, HCM City, Da Nang, Hai Phong in2016 accounted for 45.24 percent of the total waste discharged by all bigcities nationwide.

In rural areas, especially in the mountainous region, as part of communityhabit, locals are used to dumping domestic waste into gardens, ponds, lakes andcanals.

Solid waste discharged by industrial zones poses higher risks to theenvironment because the industrial waste contains high amount of toxicchemicals.

According to VSA, about 25 million tonnes of industrial waste is released eachyear.

The majority of industrial clusters have failed to complete their concentratedwaste treatment systems.

Nguyen Duc Quyen from the School of Heat Engineering and Refrigeration saidtreating solid waste remains challenging, especially treating cinder and ashreleased by thermal power plants.

In the recent years, cinder and ash have been recycled as constructionmaterials, however, most of this is still disposed at the landfill.

Among 12.2 million tonnes of cinder and ash released by 23 thermal power plantsin operation nationwide, only four million tonnes were treated in 2017.

Vietnam is standing high risk of having no space to store cinder and ash whenthe country targets to raise the number of thermal power plants to 46 by 2030,according to Industrial Safety Techniques and Environment Agency under Ministryof Industrial and Trade.

The Ministry of Construction adopted five technologies of solid waste treatmentincluding bio-drying, mechanical-biologicaltreatment and burning.

However, according to Quyen, thetechnologies were developed by individuals in Vietnam and transferred topartners. When being operated, the technologies have showed their weaknesses.

VEA deputy head Hoang Van Thuc said Vietnam needsto continue studying solid waste treatment technologies which are relevant withthe country’s practical conditions to minimise the amount of waste beingburied. Landfills that cause pollution need to be removed.

“We need to call for investment from the privatesector in collecting, transporting, recycling and treating solid waste so thatexpenditure on these works no longer relies too much on State budget.

“We are looking to require manufacturing and business facilities that releasesolid waste to pay for the fees of waste collection, transportation andtreatment. Households must also pay for all the fees of waste collection,transportation and part of treatment fee,” he said.-VNS/VNA