Piles of garbage have once again been seen in many places on the streets of Hanoi.

According to the Hanoi Urban Environment Company (Urenco), waste congestion is caused by problems at Nam Son landfill. It takes more time to get into the dumping ground, which has resulted in slow collection of waste in the inner city.

Waste congestion in Hanoi is a burning issue. To solve the problem, Hanoi authorities decided to build a waste-to-energy plant with modern technology. However, it is unclear when the plant can be put into operation. 

Hanoi also plans to set up a waste treatment complex in Dong Anh district, with the investment capital of VND768 billion. The project was initially scheduled to become operational from 2017. However, it has not been implemented so far.    

Regarding the Soc Son waste-to-energy Plant, Trinh Nhat Cuong, deputy general director of the plant, said after receiving the document from the Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, informing that the plant can meet the requirements to become operational, the plant was put into trial operation and began receiving waste on May 6.

“The waste treatment is being implemented on one chain and one incinerator with the capacity of 800 tons per day. Since the plant is on a trial run, it cannot run at full capacity,” he said.

During the trial run, some problems were found and the operation had to stop to fix the problems.

“The waste treatment capacity is 800 tons in theory. But in fact, there is no need to run at full capacity. The plant has been running on a trial basis for nearly one month,” he said.

Also according to Cuong, though the plant has become operational, it still can’t use electricity from the national grid. Since November 2021, the plant has received and helped treat 21,500 tons of waste.

“The garbage treatment tank can contain 27,000 tons of waste. After the garbage is put into the tank for several days, it will deflate, so we can receive a maximum of about 30,000 tons of waste,” he said.

At present, Soc Son can treat 800-1,000 tons of waste a day.

Cuong went on to say that there are many procedures that need to be followed at the same time.

“The plant needs acceptance to get electricity. And we have to satisfy the requirements related to fire prevention and fighting. One procedure has to wait for another one, so it takes a lot of time,” he said.

Anh Hung