Con Dao Island runs out of landfill, ships trash to mainland
Islands in Vietnam struggle to deal with ‘mountains’ of waste

About 70,000 tonnes of garbage remain untreated on Con Dao Island. — VNA/VNS Photo Huynh Son

Last month, the provincial authorities approved compressing waste into packs and shipping them to a landfill in Toc Tien Commune, Phu My Town for treatment.

However, they said at a meeting last week that packaging, shipping and landfilling trash is costly and not effective.

According to local authorities, it costs nearly VND61 billion (US$2.6 million) to compress waste, ship it from the island to the mainland and bury it.

The province, instead, has turned to burning trash on the island. The trash burning method will need an area of about 2,000sq.m.

While a waste incineration facility with appropriate technology is waiting for approval, the accumulated waste will be compressed into packs for temporary storage on the island to avoid pollution.

It is estimated that about 70,000 tonnes of waste has accumulated on Con Dao District, not to mention 15 tonnes of waste discharged every day.

The only incinerator of the island which is able to burn five tonnes of waste per day is running out of capacity. Up to 10 tonnes of garbage remain untreated every day.

Foul smell and dirty liquid from piles of waste have polluted soil and water, especially Bai Nhat Beach and posed risks of epidemics.

The district’s authorities have worked with companies to map out a plan for a waste treatment factory on the island. The factory will have a capacity of 115 tonnes per day.

Each day, it will treat 100 tonnes of accumulated waste and 15 tonnes of waste discharged daily.

With such capacity, it will be able to treat all accumulated waste in 26 months.

VNS