Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has signed a decision approving revisions to the national strategy on solid waste management to 2025 with a vision to 2050.

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has signed a decision approving revisions to the national strategy on solid waste management to 2025 with a vision to 2050 

The revised strategy sets the goal to collect, transport and treat 100 percent of harmful solid waste generated from production, business, service activities, medical establishments and trade villages, and 85 percent of harmful solid waste discharged by households by 2025.

Control over harmful solid waste will be tightened from the discharge to collection and treatment under the strategy.

Producers of electronic goods will be required to set up points to collect unused products and consumers are responsible for taking their discarded goods to such collection points.

Priority will be given to developing large-scale treatment facilities using modern technology along with specialised processing facilities for harmful solid waste.

The treatment of harmful solid waste in the form of burial or incineration will be reduced while recycling is encouraged.

The strategy also aims to replace nylon bags used by supermarkets and trade centres with environmentally-friendly bags.

Another goal set by the strategy is to collect and treat 80 percent of solid waste generated in rural areas.

To this goal, all economic sectors will be encouraged to invest in waste collection and processing with priority given to the use of advanced and environmentally-friendly technologies.

Plans will be built and implemented for waste sorting at source of discharge, while dumping sites will be upgraded to ensure they do not pollute surrounding environment.

Vietnam generates nearly 29 million tonnes of waste annually, most of which is disposed in landfills in an unhygienic manner.

Last year, the rate of waste collected and treated in urban areas came to 85 percent, up 0.5 percent from 2016.-VNA