The daily volume of domestic waste is 300,000 tons

The HCM City Science & Technology Department last October gave the HCM City Innovation Award to seven outstanding inventions in 2017-2018. Quy’s microbiological organic fertilizer made from domestic solid waste got second prize. There was no first prize.

The solution solves two problems at the same time – treating domestic waste and providing low-cost organic fertilizer to the market. With Quy’s non-polluting waste treatment process, the treatment time needed is one third of similar technologies.

A report shows that the daily volume of domestic waste in Vietnam is 300,000 tons, which is a threat to the environment. Waste is mostly buried or incinerated, which pollutes soil, water and air. 

Recently, solid waste has been collected to produce organic fertilizer but the treatment technologies all have shortcomings. They have low efficiency (less than 20 percent), while organic fertilizer products contain many impurities and have low quality, and don’t sell well. 

Another problem is that the required time needed for waste compost is too long, over 75 days, which means that a large amount of waste cannot be handled.

To solve the problems, Quy prepared biological products to deodorize and disinfect waste. He adjusted technical specifications to improve the performance of the treatment process.

These steps helped reduce the waste composting time to 25 days and the performance was higher, about 30 percent. 

Organic fertilizer products generated from the process have much lower production costs than imports of the same kind.

With the price of VND2,500 per kilogram, investors would be able to take back investment capital after two years. Meanwhile, the prices of import organic fertilizer are VND6,000-12,000 per kilogram.

Other elements in waste could also be exploited to make composite boards and unburnt bricks. In addition, metals and glass to be split during the process will be reused.

According to the inventor, non-recyclable components which are not hazardous, called inert waste, accounting for 3 percent, can be used to fill potholes on roads.

The process has been used by VN BCC Company for its bio-organic fertilizer production plant with a capacity of 10,000 tons per year in Lam Dong province. A representative of the company said the entire output of the plant has been ordered.

Some large-scale waste treatment units in Can Tho and Hue are also putting the process into operation.

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