Solid waste is supposed to be sorted into three groups, including easily biodegradable organic waste, waste capable of being reused and recycled and the group of remaining waste.

People who do not sort solid waste or do not hand over waste for environmental units have to pay a fine of VND15-20 million (USD652.17-869.56).

However, the litter classification in the city has not much improved. It is easy to see many piles of mixed rubbish left in front of local households.

Most of households at a residential area of Ward 17, Binh Thanh District don’t follow regulations and leave their waste mixed.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc in Ward 17 said that she had heard about the regulation from her neighbours, but the local authorities had not yet informed residents of this. “I’ve not yet classified rubbish, but not been fined,” she added.

Many others have tried to follow the regulation, but environmental workers haven’t paid any attention, dumping all kinds of rubbish into their vehicles at the same time. So, many don’t want to do classification anymore.

Tran Thi Thuy who specialises in rubbish collection in District 4 said she had not been told about the classification process so she still did her work as previously.

Huynh Minh Nhut, director of the HCM City Urban Environment Company Limited, said it was necessary to clearly report local households of the rubbish classification scheme. Rubbish collectors have the right to refuse waste which wasn’t sorted out as regulated. Dtinews

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