论文部分内容阅读
Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Kosuke Toshiki and Shoichi Kunikane
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan
Received: June 21, 2011 / Accepted: August 2, 2011 / Published: January 20, 2012.
Abstract: Rapid industrialization in Vietnam has resulted in the difficult task of finding means to properly manage the generation of industrial waste. In an attempt to deal with this problem, the Vietnamese government revised the Law on Environmental Protection of 2005, with which it imposed strict regulations on industrial waste generators and the waste they discharge. However, questions remain about the current industrial solid waste management system because of the discrepancy between the ideals embodied in the Law and the actual practices occurring in industry. We report here on the effectiveness of governmental policies, focusing on environmental performance in industrial zones in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. We examined government records, and reports from waste generators, as well as waste treatment methods at sites. In addition, on-site surveys were carried out at 44 companies in HCMC in 2009 and 2010 to obtain a better understanding of the companies’ handling of and attitude toward the industrial waste they produced. Our results show that the incoherence of the revised Law and regulations in industrial waste management has caused a serious pressure on domestic landfills. We conclude that there is a strong need for change in the current regulatory and management system in order to increase the effectiveness of environmental management for future sustainable development.
Key words: Environmental policy, industrial waste management, environmental performance, sustainable development.
1. Introduction??
Vietnam’s rapid industrialization and impressive economic growth has brought about negative environmental impacts. The Vietnamese Government revised the Law on Environmental Protection of 2005[1], and in doing so imposed strict regulations on industrial waste generators and the waste they discharge, based on the principle of “polluter pays.” In addition, the government has announced a waste management strategy extending to 2025 [2]. The plan states that any organization or individual releasing waste that causes pollution must pay for the damage.
Also, to control pollution, 100% of solid waste from urban areas, together with hazardous and non-hazardous industrial solid waste must be collected and treated.
Ref. [3] reports that Vietnam produces over 15 million tons of waste each year from various sources. More than 80 percent (12.8 million tons/yr) is from municipal sources, including households, restaurants, markets, and businesses. Industries generate over 2.6 million tons of waste (17 percent) each year, making it the second most significant source. About 80 percent of the 2.6 million tons of industrial waste generated each year comes from two main industrial centers in the North and South. Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and its surrounding provinces generate nearly 50 percent of the country’s industrial waste. The increasing amount of industrial solid waste being generated is beginning to create a crisis in waste management in the areas of generation, collection, treatment and disposal due to the lack of effective regulatory systems. Improving solid waste management is a major challenge because the current legal framework is insufficient. Additionally, lack of funding and equipment, and lack of technical capability for waste treatment have caused considerable difficulties. Previous studies mainly focus on municipal solid waste management since the adoption of the revised Law in 2005. Dan et al. [4] studied on the quantity of industrial waste coming from medium- and small-scale industries outside industrial zones. This paper provides an overview of industrial solid waste management, including its generation, the cost of its collection, treatment and disposal, and its management policy issues, through case studies of industrial zones in HCMC.
2. Materials and Methods
To learn about the new structure of industrial solid waste management and the effectiveness of the current system in controlling industrial solid waste, a variety of materials were examined. These included the Law on Environmental Protection 2005 [1], and related regulations on industrial solid waste management [2],[5-10]. In addition, to obtain a better understanding of total controls on the current industrial solid waste management system enforced by the major Law and related regulations, on-site surveys were carried out at 44 companies in HCMC in 2009 and 2010 to consider the role of polluters in industrial waste management. On-site surveys were conducted using a random selection processes based on a list of companies provided by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DoNRE). Interviews were also carried out with companies’representatives regarding environmental performance. Short questionnaires about waste generation, separation and treatment methods at site were given, together with questions on the representatives’knowledge of current environmental regulation. In addition, material intake, production processes, discharge from each process, and collection and storage of waste at site were investigated in order to learn more about each company’s efforts to deal with industrial waste they were generating.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1 Management Regulations and Actual Practices
3.1.1 Management Regulations
Legal regulations concerning on industrial solid waste management are shown in Table 1.
The Law provides for activities of environmental protection; policies, measures and resources for environmental protection; rights and obligations of organizations, households and individuals in environmental protection. The Law stipulates environmental protection responsibilities of organizations and individuals in production, business, and service activities. Under the Law and related regulations, individuals and organizations in production activities are imposed responsibility for carrying out adequate furnishment of equipment and tools for collection of ordinary solid wastes and hazardous wastes and compliance with requirement of receipt of wastes already sorted out at source. In addition, it is required that organizations and individuals engaged in hazardous waste generating activities must organize by themselves the sorting and collection of hazardous wastes or sign contracts for delivery to parties that receive and manage hazardous wastes.
However, examination of the Law and related regulations, shows that the Law itself fails to provide a clear definition of municipal solid waste; therefore, interpretation of the law requires reference to other regulations such as Decree No.59-CP of 2007, in which solid waste is defined any waste in solid form discharged from all types of production, services, daily life, and other activities. This definition of solid waste is so broad that it can include municipal waste and industrial waste, as well both non-hazardous and hazardous waste. Also, there is a lack of the provision for the standards of solid waste disposal. In addition, the revised Law and related regulations have not provided principles and proper measures for hazardous waste management and special responsibilities of hazardous waste generators.
Table 1 Environment legislation [1, 5-11]
At the end of 2009, the regulations of sanctions against administrative violations in the area of environment protection were repealed by Government Decree No. 117-CP, in which the amount of fine for violations were increased many times higher than the old Government Decree No. 81-CP of 2006.
3.1.2 Paths of Industrial Solid Waste Treatment, Recycling and Disposal
According to the revised Law and related regulations on industrial solid waste management, the output of industrial solid waste is controlled as described in Fig. 1.
The current body of environmental legislation distinguishes hazardous and non-hazardous industrial waste. Each of the two kinds of wastes is further divided into recyclable and non-recyclable waste. Recyclable waste is to be sold to recyclable waste dealers or recycling companies. Non-recyclable hazardous waste should be treated at treatment companies. Industrial waste is defined as hazardous based on the List of Hazardous Waste [9], which divides such waste into 19 groups, 94 branches, and 416 types according to their main sources (or generation). Non-recyclable non-hazardous waste is currently classified as municipal solid waste, which is collected by a rubbish company or Ho Chi Minh City Environmental Company (Citenco), and then dumped at a domestic waste landfill. Domestic waste landfills receive both non-recyclable non-hazardous waste from manufacturers and post-treatment waste from hazardous waste treatment companies. As mentioned above, due to the lack in both of specific definition of municipal solid waste and category for non-hazardous non-recycling solid waste discharged from processing, a very large amount of non-recyclable non-hazardous waste is transferred to domestic waste landfills. In addition, the current legislation does not provide an appropriate baseline to measure hazardous waste quantity from manufacturing processes.
Our study found that the main problems with the implementation of the regulations involve confusion at companies, about how these regulations should be applied, as well as outright circumvention of the regulations. Fig. 2 shows that waste category is closely related to its disposal cost with hazardous waste being much more expensive to dispose of than others. Because recyclable waste and municipal waste are not subjected to stricter controls than hazardous waste is, there appears to be strong temptation for companies to dispose of low-grade hazardous waste in municipal solid waste dumps. It should be noted that municipal waste transferred to rubbish companies or Citenco is not carefully monitored at present.
Fig. 1 Flow chart of industrial solid waste output and its treatment.
Fig. 2 Comparison of the flows of industrial solid waste and money.
3.2 Current State of Solid Waste Management in Hcmc
3.2.1 Industrial Solid Waste Generation and Its Management
In 2006, the amount of domestic solid waste generated in industrial zones and export processing zones in HCMC was approximately 400-500 tons per day, out of which the amount of non-hazardous industrial solid waste was approximately 200-300 tons per day [12]. Dan et al. [4] also reported that the amount of industrial solid waste for the whole city had increased to up to 1,500 tons per day in 2009.
(1) Hazardous industrial solid waste
According to the regulations, companies have to pay the cost for the treatment of hazardous waste they generate. The cost for the treatment of one ton of hazardous sludge was about 9 million VND (450 USD)(US Dollar 1 = VND 20,000 in 2010). As the result, many companies in the city have illegally discharged waste into the environment to evade the payment for treatment with high price. HCMC was facing a drawback in the treatment of hazardous waste as the amount of hazardous waste discharged into the environment has increased rapidly while many treatment companies are lacking of competence and technologies. Also, the city was currently discarding over 700 tons of harmful waste a day, which is twice the amount reported by companies in the city [13]. As mentioned above, on-site surveys were carried out at 44 companies as an approach to a reasonable way of proportioning the cost of industrial solid waste management. The surveys revealed in many cases that a large amount of industrial solid waste, which the companies consider to be neither recyclable nor hazardous, was put together with domestic waste. As discussed above, companies pay the least for the disposal of non-hazardous non-recyclable industrial solid waste. We saw no evidence of inspection of such non-hazardous non-recyclable industrial solid waste to ensure that hazardous solid waste was not included as well. A large amount of uninspected industrial solid waste is collected, transferred and dumped at domestic landfills together with domestic solid waste every day. Another issue has become known with regard to hazardous waste treatment. To cope with the booming prices for hazardous waste treatment, companies have been keeping a large amount of hazardous waste at site even though many companies have signed contract with hazardous waste treatment companies. The hazardous waste was kept to wait for finding another hazardous waste treatment company with lower price according to the companies’representatives. The surveys also revealed that companies have just signed contracts with the waste treatment companies to complete the requirement of administration and inspection process. These companies have provided no invoices for transferring generated hazardous waste from production sites.
(2) Municipals solid waste from industrial zones
Municipal solid waste from industrial zones is collected by private section collector or by industrial zones’ collector. The waste is transferred to the city’s transfer stations or districts’ transfer stations before delivered to the city’s domestic landfills. The cost for collection and disposal for municipal solid waste is different in each industrial zone. Also, the cost changes with calculating unit based on the agreement between generator and collector. Some companies sign contract for municipal solid waste collection in ton/month; in case when the quantity of waste cannot be determined, such a contract for collection is signed in time/month.
It should be noted that the amount of municipal waste coming from companies in industrial zones is not monitored by environmental protection agency at all level of management. Our study revealed that a large amount of industrial solid waste is put together with municipal solid waste every day. It is apparent that the inclusion of hazardous waste in municipal waste may not be avoided.
3.2.2 Households’ Municipal Solid Waste Generation and Its Disposal Cost
In 2009, each household in HCMC paid 8,000-12,000 VND (US Dollar 1 = VND 19,500 in 2009) per month for domestic waste disposal, which was equivalent to the sum of 120 billion VND (over 6 million USD) per month for the whole city. The annual budget for municipal solid waste management of HCMC was up to 600 billion VND (32-38 million USD), which was equivalent to 0.35% of GDP of HCMC in 2005. In addition, the city has to provide substantial funding for constructing new domestic waste sanitary landfills, as well as for purchasing and maintaining machinery and vehicles. The construction cost for 1 ha of sanitary landfill is about 160,000-200,000 USD, and operation and maintenance cost for collection and disposal of 1 ton of solid waste is estimated to be 5.0-6.5 USD [4]. The cost for solid waste management increases with the increase in solid waste quantity. The cost for domestic solid waste management is estimated to increase about 12-13% per year in HCMC.
Municipal solid waste generation in HCMC has increased along with its increase in population and income, as shown in Fig. 3. Solid waste generation per capita is about 0.8 kg per day in HCMC. It is important to note that this figure shows the average amount of waste per day based on collected quantity but not generated quantity.
The estimate of municipal solid waste quantity in HCMC up to 2025 is shown in Table 2.
3.2.3 Landfills and Methane Gas Recovery
At present, three of HCMC’s five landfills are already closed. The HCMC government has launched a project to recover methane gas from these closed landfills as an energy source for electricity generation. At Go Cat landfill, for example, wells and a collection system has been installed, and its methane gas yield estimated by the government is approximately 233,600 tons for the ten years of 2005 through 2014[17]. According to Ref. [18], the landfill gas collection project for the Phuoc Hiep No.1 is under planning. However, the cost of installing a gas collection system is very high, and critics argue that the government’s estimate of the total amount of gas that can be recovered is overly optimistic.
While the recovery and use of methane gas from landfills can help to reduce the overall emission of greenhouse gases, this positive contribution is heavily outweighed by the negative impact of large landfill projects on the local environment. There is a strong need to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills and to explore alternative waste disposal methods in a long-term plan for environmental protection.
Fig. 3 Comparison between GDP per capital and collected waste quantity in HCMC [14, 15].
Table 2 Estimate of municipal solid waste in HCMC up to 2025 [16].
4. Conclusion
We have found that the incoherence of the Law on Environmental Protection 2005 and related regulations is causing a serious pressure on domestic solid waste landfills in Ho Chi Minh City. First, there is a need to create a sound regulatory framework for each particular kind of waste-generating industrial activity. Second, and more seriously, our case studies based on on-site investigations have revealed that companies are ignoring or evading their environmental responsibilities due to the lack of proper regulation and inspection of industrial solid waste management. An adequate assessment of the costs that should be borne by companies sharing responsibility for industrial solid waste management is yet to be undertaken. If HCMC is to be ready to make a transition towards sustainable development, a wide-range reform of its environmental management system needs to be undertaken first.
References
[1] Law on Environmental Protection of 2005 from the Vietnamese National Assembly [online], 2005 in Vietnamese, http://www.donre.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/dulieu/lbvmt.ht m (accessed Aug. 11, 2010).
[2] National Outlines Long-Term Strategy on Solid Waste to 2025, Vietnamese Government, 2008. (in Vietnamese)
[3] World Bank, Vietnam Environment Monitor 2004-Solid Waste, 2004.
[4] N.P. Dan, N.T. Viet, Status and strategies on solid waste management in Ho Chi Minh City, International Journal of Environment and Waste Management 4 (2009) 412-421.
[5] Decree No. 80-CP dated August 9, 2006, Detailing the Implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection, Vietnamese Government, 2006. (in Vietnamese)
[6] Decree No. 81-CP dated August 9, 2006 of Promulgating the Regulations of Sanction against Administrative Violations in the Field of Protection of the Environment, Vietnamese Government, 2006. (in Vietnamese)
[7] Decree No. 59-CP dated April 9, 2007 Promulgating the Regulations on Solid Waste Management, Vietnamese Government, 2007. (in Vietnamese)
[8] Decree No. 21-CP dated February 28, 2008 Guiding the Implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection(Revocation and Supplement for Government Decree No. 80-CP dated August 9, 2006), Vietnamese Government, 2008. (in Vietnamese)
[9] Decision No. 23 dated of December 26, 2006 the List of Hazardous Waste from the Vietnam Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), 2006. (in Vietnamese)
[10] Circular No. 12 dated December 26, 2006, The Guidance of Professional Conditions and Procedure for Application, Registration, Grant of Permits, and Registration Code Numbers for Hazardous Waste Management from MoNRE, 2006. (in Vietnamese)
[11] Decree No. 29-CP dated March 14, 2008 Promulgating the Regulations of Industrial Parks, Export-Processing Zones, Economic Zones, the Vietnamese Government, 2008. (in Vietnamese)
[12] Environmental Issues of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and Industrial Zones (IZs) in Ho Chi Minh City-Present Conditions and Solutions from HCMC Export Processing Zones Authority, 2009.
[13] VietNamNet, HCM City faces setback in harmful waste treatment [Online], 2010, http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/environment/2100/hcm-ci ty-faces-setback-in-harmful-waste-treatment/.
[14] DoNRE, 2010, http://www.donre.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/.
[15] Statistical Office of HCMC, 2010, http://www.pso.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/an_pham/sltkcytph cm/30_so_lieu_thong_ke_chu_yeu/.
[16] N.D. Tuan, N.T.T. Thuy, Status of solid waste management and disposal in Ho Chi Minh City-Opportunities for 3 R implementation [Online], 2006, http://www.uncrd.or.jp/env/spc/ docs/3R-Vietnam-3R-Consultation-Mtg-Dec05_7.pdf.(accessed Dec. 2, 2010)
[17] N. N. Sang, Current status of landfills in urban city in Ho Chi Minh City-Vietnam, NII-Electronic Library Service, 2009. (in Japanese)
[18] Asian Development Bank, Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh Environmental Improvement Project, Completion report, 2008.
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan
Received: June 21, 2011 / Accepted: August 2, 2011 / Published: January 20, 2012.
Abstract: Rapid industrialization in Vietnam has resulted in the difficult task of finding means to properly manage the generation of industrial waste. In an attempt to deal with this problem, the Vietnamese government revised the Law on Environmental Protection of 2005, with which it imposed strict regulations on industrial waste generators and the waste they discharge. However, questions remain about the current industrial solid waste management system because of the discrepancy between the ideals embodied in the Law and the actual practices occurring in industry. We report here on the effectiveness of governmental policies, focusing on environmental performance in industrial zones in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. We examined government records, and reports from waste generators, as well as waste treatment methods at sites. In addition, on-site surveys were carried out at 44 companies in HCMC in 2009 and 2010 to obtain a better understanding of the companies’ handling of and attitude toward the industrial waste they produced. Our results show that the incoherence of the revised Law and regulations in industrial waste management has caused a serious pressure on domestic landfills. We conclude that there is a strong need for change in the current regulatory and management system in order to increase the effectiveness of environmental management for future sustainable development.
Key words: Environmental policy, industrial waste management, environmental performance, sustainable development.
1. Introduction??
Vietnam’s rapid industrialization and impressive economic growth has brought about negative environmental impacts. The Vietnamese Government revised the Law on Environmental Protection of 2005[1], and in doing so imposed strict regulations on industrial waste generators and the waste they discharge, based on the principle of “polluter pays.” In addition, the government has announced a waste management strategy extending to 2025 [2]. The plan states that any organization or individual releasing waste that causes pollution must pay for the damage.
Also, to control pollution, 100% of solid waste from urban areas, together with hazardous and non-hazardous industrial solid waste must be collected and treated.
Ref. [3] reports that Vietnam produces over 15 million tons of waste each year from various sources. More than 80 percent (12.8 million tons/yr) is from municipal sources, including households, restaurants, markets, and businesses. Industries generate over 2.6 million tons of waste (17 percent) each year, making it the second most significant source. About 80 percent of the 2.6 million tons of industrial waste generated each year comes from two main industrial centers in the North and South. Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and its surrounding provinces generate nearly 50 percent of the country’s industrial waste. The increasing amount of industrial solid waste being generated is beginning to create a crisis in waste management in the areas of generation, collection, treatment and disposal due to the lack of effective regulatory systems. Improving solid waste management is a major challenge because the current legal framework is insufficient. Additionally, lack of funding and equipment, and lack of technical capability for waste treatment have caused considerable difficulties. Previous studies mainly focus on municipal solid waste management since the adoption of the revised Law in 2005. Dan et al. [4] studied on the quantity of industrial waste coming from medium- and small-scale industries outside industrial zones. This paper provides an overview of industrial solid waste management, including its generation, the cost of its collection, treatment and disposal, and its management policy issues, through case studies of industrial zones in HCMC.
2. Materials and Methods
To learn about the new structure of industrial solid waste management and the effectiveness of the current system in controlling industrial solid waste, a variety of materials were examined. These included the Law on Environmental Protection 2005 [1], and related regulations on industrial solid waste management [2],[5-10]. In addition, to obtain a better understanding of total controls on the current industrial solid waste management system enforced by the major Law and related regulations, on-site surveys were carried out at 44 companies in HCMC in 2009 and 2010 to consider the role of polluters in industrial waste management. On-site surveys were conducted using a random selection processes based on a list of companies provided by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DoNRE). Interviews were also carried out with companies’representatives regarding environmental performance. Short questionnaires about waste generation, separation and treatment methods at site were given, together with questions on the representatives’knowledge of current environmental regulation. In addition, material intake, production processes, discharge from each process, and collection and storage of waste at site were investigated in order to learn more about each company’s efforts to deal with industrial waste they were generating.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1 Management Regulations and Actual Practices
3.1.1 Management Regulations
Legal regulations concerning on industrial solid waste management are shown in Table 1.
The Law provides for activities of environmental protection; policies, measures and resources for environmental protection; rights and obligations of organizations, households and individuals in environmental protection. The Law stipulates environmental protection responsibilities of organizations and individuals in production, business, and service activities. Under the Law and related regulations, individuals and organizations in production activities are imposed responsibility for carrying out adequate furnishment of equipment and tools for collection of ordinary solid wastes and hazardous wastes and compliance with requirement of receipt of wastes already sorted out at source. In addition, it is required that organizations and individuals engaged in hazardous waste generating activities must organize by themselves the sorting and collection of hazardous wastes or sign contracts for delivery to parties that receive and manage hazardous wastes.
However, examination of the Law and related regulations, shows that the Law itself fails to provide a clear definition of municipal solid waste; therefore, interpretation of the law requires reference to other regulations such as Decree No.59-CP of 2007, in which solid waste is defined any waste in solid form discharged from all types of production, services, daily life, and other activities. This definition of solid waste is so broad that it can include municipal waste and industrial waste, as well both non-hazardous and hazardous waste. Also, there is a lack of the provision for the standards of solid waste disposal. In addition, the revised Law and related regulations have not provided principles and proper measures for hazardous waste management and special responsibilities of hazardous waste generators.
Table 1 Environment legislation [1, 5-11]
At the end of 2009, the regulations of sanctions against administrative violations in the area of environment protection were repealed by Government Decree No. 117-CP, in which the amount of fine for violations were increased many times higher than the old Government Decree No. 81-CP of 2006.
3.1.2 Paths of Industrial Solid Waste Treatment, Recycling and Disposal
According to the revised Law and related regulations on industrial solid waste management, the output of industrial solid waste is controlled as described in Fig. 1.
The current body of environmental legislation distinguishes hazardous and non-hazardous industrial waste. Each of the two kinds of wastes is further divided into recyclable and non-recyclable waste. Recyclable waste is to be sold to recyclable waste dealers or recycling companies. Non-recyclable hazardous waste should be treated at treatment companies. Industrial waste is defined as hazardous based on the List of Hazardous Waste [9], which divides such waste into 19 groups, 94 branches, and 416 types according to their main sources (or generation). Non-recyclable non-hazardous waste is currently classified as municipal solid waste, which is collected by a rubbish company or Ho Chi Minh City Environmental Company (Citenco), and then dumped at a domestic waste landfill. Domestic waste landfills receive both non-recyclable non-hazardous waste from manufacturers and post-treatment waste from hazardous waste treatment companies. As mentioned above, due to the lack in both of specific definition of municipal solid waste and category for non-hazardous non-recycling solid waste discharged from processing, a very large amount of non-recyclable non-hazardous waste is transferred to domestic waste landfills. In addition, the current legislation does not provide an appropriate baseline to measure hazardous waste quantity from manufacturing processes.
Our study found that the main problems with the implementation of the regulations involve confusion at companies, about how these regulations should be applied, as well as outright circumvention of the regulations. Fig. 2 shows that waste category is closely related to its disposal cost with hazardous waste being much more expensive to dispose of than others. Because recyclable waste and municipal waste are not subjected to stricter controls than hazardous waste is, there appears to be strong temptation for companies to dispose of low-grade hazardous waste in municipal solid waste dumps. It should be noted that municipal waste transferred to rubbish companies or Citenco is not carefully monitored at present.
Fig. 1 Flow chart of industrial solid waste output and its treatment.
Fig. 2 Comparison of the flows of industrial solid waste and money.
3.2 Current State of Solid Waste Management in Hcmc
3.2.1 Industrial Solid Waste Generation and Its Management
In 2006, the amount of domestic solid waste generated in industrial zones and export processing zones in HCMC was approximately 400-500 tons per day, out of which the amount of non-hazardous industrial solid waste was approximately 200-300 tons per day [12]. Dan et al. [4] also reported that the amount of industrial solid waste for the whole city had increased to up to 1,500 tons per day in 2009.
(1) Hazardous industrial solid waste
According to the regulations, companies have to pay the cost for the treatment of hazardous waste they generate. The cost for the treatment of one ton of hazardous sludge was about 9 million VND (450 USD)(US Dollar 1 = VND 20,000 in 2010). As the result, many companies in the city have illegally discharged waste into the environment to evade the payment for treatment with high price. HCMC was facing a drawback in the treatment of hazardous waste as the amount of hazardous waste discharged into the environment has increased rapidly while many treatment companies are lacking of competence and technologies. Also, the city was currently discarding over 700 tons of harmful waste a day, which is twice the amount reported by companies in the city [13]. As mentioned above, on-site surveys were carried out at 44 companies as an approach to a reasonable way of proportioning the cost of industrial solid waste management. The surveys revealed in many cases that a large amount of industrial solid waste, which the companies consider to be neither recyclable nor hazardous, was put together with domestic waste. As discussed above, companies pay the least for the disposal of non-hazardous non-recyclable industrial solid waste. We saw no evidence of inspection of such non-hazardous non-recyclable industrial solid waste to ensure that hazardous solid waste was not included as well. A large amount of uninspected industrial solid waste is collected, transferred and dumped at domestic landfills together with domestic solid waste every day. Another issue has become known with regard to hazardous waste treatment. To cope with the booming prices for hazardous waste treatment, companies have been keeping a large amount of hazardous waste at site even though many companies have signed contract with hazardous waste treatment companies. The hazardous waste was kept to wait for finding another hazardous waste treatment company with lower price according to the companies’representatives. The surveys also revealed that companies have just signed contracts with the waste treatment companies to complete the requirement of administration and inspection process. These companies have provided no invoices for transferring generated hazardous waste from production sites.
(2) Municipals solid waste from industrial zones
Municipal solid waste from industrial zones is collected by private section collector or by industrial zones’ collector. The waste is transferred to the city’s transfer stations or districts’ transfer stations before delivered to the city’s domestic landfills. The cost for collection and disposal for municipal solid waste is different in each industrial zone. Also, the cost changes with calculating unit based on the agreement between generator and collector. Some companies sign contract for municipal solid waste collection in ton/month; in case when the quantity of waste cannot be determined, such a contract for collection is signed in time/month.
It should be noted that the amount of municipal waste coming from companies in industrial zones is not monitored by environmental protection agency at all level of management. Our study revealed that a large amount of industrial solid waste is put together with municipal solid waste every day. It is apparent that the inclusion of hazardous waste in municipal waste may not be avoided.
3.2.2 Households’ Municipal Solid Waste Generation and Its Disposal Cost
In 2009, each household in HCMC paid 8,000-12,000 VND (US Dollar 1 = VND 19,500 in 2009) per month for domestic waste disposal, which was equivalent to the sum of 120 billion VND (over 6 million USD) per month for the whole city. The annual budget for municipal solid waste management of HCMC was up to 600 billion VND (32-38 million USD), which was equivalent to 0.35% of GDP of HCMC in 2005. In addition, the city has to provide substantial funding for constructing new domestic waste sanitary landfills, as well as for purchasing and maintaining machinery and vehicles. The construction cost for 1 ha of sanitary landfill is about 160,000-200,000 USD, and operation and maintenance cost for collection and disposal of 1 ton of solid waste is estimated to be 5.0-6.5 USD [4]. The cost for solid waste management increases with the increase in solid waste quantity. The cost for domestic solid waste management is estimated to increase about 12-13% per year in HCMC.
Municipal solid waste generation in HCMC has increased along with its increase in population and income, as shown in Fig. 3. Solid waste generation per capita is about 0.8 kg per day in HCMC. It is important to note that this figure shows the average amount of waste per day based on collected quantity but not generated quantity.
The estimate of municipal solid waste quantity in HCMC up to 2025 is shown in Table 2.
3.2.3 Landfills and Methane Gas Recovery
At present, three of HCMC’s five landfills are already closed. The HCMC government has launched a project to recover methane gas from these closed landfills as an energy source for electricity generation. At Go Cat landfill, for example, wells and a collection system has been installed, and its methane gas yield estimated by the government is approximately 233,600 tons for the ten years of 2005 through 2014[17]. According to Ref. [18], the landfill gas collection project for the Phuoc Hiep No.1 is under planning. However, the cost of installing a gas collection system is very high, and critics argue that the government’s estimate of the total amount of gas that can be recovered is overly optimistic.
While the recovery and use of methane gas from landfills can help to reduce the overall emission of greenhouse gases, this positive contribution is heavily outweighed by the negative impact of large landfill projects on the local environment. There is a strong need to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills and to explore alternative waste disposal methods in a long-term plan for environmental protection.
Fig. 3 Comparison between GDP per capital and collected waste quantity in HCMC [14, 15].
Table 2 Estimate of municipal solid waste in HCMC up to 2025 [16].
4. Conclusion
We have found that the incoherence of the Law on Environmental Protection 2005 and related regulations is causing a serious pressure on domestic solid waste landfills in Ho Chi Minh City. First, there is a need to create a sound regulatory framework for each particular kind of waste-generating industrial activity. Second, and more seriously, our case studies based on on-site investigations have revealed that companies are ignoring or evading their environmental responsibilities due to the lack of proper regulation and inspection of industrial solid waste management. An adequate assessment of the costs that should be borne by companies sharing responsibility for industrial solid waste management is yet to be undertaken. If HCMC is to be ready to make a transition towards sustainable development, a wide-range reform of its environmental management system needs to be undertaken first.
References
[1] Law on Environmental Protection of 2005 from the Vietnamese National Assembly [online], 2005 in Vietnamese, http://www.donre.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/dulieu/lbvmt.ht m (accessed Aug. 11, 2010).
[2] National Outlines Long-Term Strategy on Solid Waste to 2025, Vietnamese Government, 2008. (in Vietnamese)
[3] World Bank, Vietnam Environment Monitor 2004-Solid Waste, 2004.
[4] N.P. Dan, N.T. Viet, Status and strategies on solid waste management in Ho Chi Minh City, International Journal of Environment and Waste Management 4 (2009) 412-421.
[5] Decree No. 80-CP dated August 9, 2006, Detailing the Implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection, Vietnamese Government, 2006. (in Vietnamese)
[6] Decree No. 81-CP dated August 9, 2006 of Promulgating the Regulations of Sanction against Administrative Violations in the Field of Protection of the Environment, Vietnamese Government, 2006. (in Vietnamese)
[7] Decree No. 59-CP dated April 9, 2007 Promulgating the Regulations on Solid Waste Management, Vietnamese Government, 2007. (in Vietnamese)
[8] Decree No. 21-CP dated February 28, 2008 Guiding the Implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection(Revocation and Supplement for Government Decree No. 80-CP dated August 9, 2006), Vietnamese Government, 2008. (in Vietnamese)
[9] Decision No. 23 dated of December 26, 2006 the List of Hazardous Waste from the Vietnam Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), 2006. (in Vietnamese)
[10] Circular No. 12 dated December 26, 2006, The Guidance of Professional Conditions and Procedure for Application, Registration, Grant of Permits, and Registration Code Numbers for Hazardous Waste Management from MoNRE, 2006. (in Vietnamese)
[11] Decree No. 29-CP dated March 14, 2008 Promulgating the Regulations of Industrial Parks, Export-Processing Zones, Economic Zones, the Vietnamese Government, 2008. (in Vietnamese)
[12] Environmental Issues of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and Industrial Zones (IZs) in Ho Chi Minh City-Present Conditions and Solutions from HCMC Export Processing Zones Authority, 2009.
[13] VietNamNet, HCM City faces setback in harmful waste treatment [Online], 2010, http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/environment/2100/hcm-ci ty-faces-setback-in-harmful-waste-treatment/.
[14] DoNRE, 2010, http://www.donre.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/.
[15] Statistical Office of HCMC, 2010, http://www.pso.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/an_pham/sltkcytph cm/30_so_lieu_thong_ke_chu_yeu/.
[16] N.D. Tuan, N.T.T. Thuy, Status of solid waste management and disposal in Ho Chi Minh City-Opportunities for 3 R implementation [Online], 2006, http://www.uncrd.or.jp/env/spc/ docs/3R-Vietnam-3R-Consultation-Mtg-Dec05_7.pdf.(accessed Dec. 2, 2010)
[17] N. N. Sang, Current status of landfills in urban city in Ho Chi Minh City-Vietnam, NII-Electronic Library Service, 2009. (in Japanese)
[18] Asian Development Bank, Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh Environmental Improvement Project, Completion report, 2008.