Nguyen Thuong Hien, deputy head of the Vietnam Environment Administration

Nguyen Thuong Hien, deputy head of the Vietnam Environment Administration said on February 27 that the government had learned from South Korea and Japan so the amended Law on Environmental Protection would have more detailed rules about household solid waste management.

According to Hien, the current fee collecting method does not bring in enough money for waste treatment work. Instead of fees for collecting and dealing with rubbish, they will sell environmentally-friendly rubbish bags to households in residential areas.

"Who discharge more rubbish will have to pay more," he said.

Provinces and municipalities will assign firms that will manufacture the bags. The revenues will cover the state's waste treatment cost.

The households that discharge less than 300 kg of rubbish a day can buy rubbish bags like retail customers. Those that discharge more than 300 kg a day will have to make a contract with the manufacturers.

Statistics from the Vietnam Environment Administration show that the amount of discharged solid waste increased from 28 million tonnes in 2009 to 35.7 million tonnes in 2015. That means Vietnam discharges 10% more solid waste each year and these numbers are still on the rise.

It is estimated that 70,000 tonnes of solid waste is discharged from residential areas a day. The number of solid waste increases by 10-16% every year, including a huge number of plastic products and bags.

Vietnam has issued several regulations regarding the responsibility of the litterers and how to classify the rubbish but the results were not very effective.

Nguoilaodong/Dtinews

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