VietNamNet Bridge - Hanoi faces a severe shortage of land for garbage disposal but measures begun a few years ago like enlarging existing landfills and establishing waste-treatment plants have not gone smoothly.

There are also several smaller sites like Huu Bang, Nui Thoong, Ta Thanh Oai, and Kieu Ky, and two processing plants, Cau Dien and Seraphin Son Tay.

Nguyen Van Hoa, CEO of the Hanoi Urban environment One Member Ltd Co (Urenco), says 90 percent of household waste is buried, and the rest goes to the recycle factory at Cau Dien district.

“Most of the garbage has to be buried because the volume of organic garbage is quite small,” he said.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency has warned that Hanoi’s landfills will be full by next year, and unless the problem is addressed, there will no longer be place for garbage disposal.

If there is no site to dump garbage, in just three days Hanoi would be flooded with waste, an environmental expert said.

Hoa admitted that Nam Son, the largest landfill which receives garbage from all districts, will be too full by next year to receive any more.

Besides, Nguyen Van Luong of the Hanoi Environment Protection, said Xuan Son has no more land and Nui Thoong is already full.

There are plans to move the Nam Son dump to Bac Son District but people there are reluctant to give up their lands and relocate.

Plans by the Advanced International Joint Stock Co (AIC) to build the country’s largest waste-treatment plant in Bac Son have also been delayed.

The US$140-million plant was expected to start operating at the end of this year with a capacity to process 2,000 tons of garbage a day, converting 90 percent of it into fertilizer or recycled materials and burying the rest.

But Nguyen Hong Son, deputy CEO of the company, said construction would only begin in June and take a year to complete.

Source: Thanh Nien/Tuoi Tre