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Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139

International Conference on Solid Waste Management, 5IconSWM 2015

Municipal Solid Waste Management in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet

Nam, Current Practices and Future Recommendation
R. L. Vermaa,*, G. Borongana, M. Memonb*
a
Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific, Asian Institute of Technology, KlongLuang, Pathumthani, Thailand
b
International Environmental Technology Centre, United Nations Environment Programme, Osaka, Japan

Abstract

Management of solid waste, including the municipal solid waste (MSW), is a major challenge in urban regions of most part of the
world, including Southeast Asia. Due to the lack of effective management programs, regulations, and policies; the waste is
causing severe health hazard including several communicable diseases, bad odors, nuisance, and environmental impacts, such as,
contamination of water, soil, and air. Most Southeast Asian cities are lacking efficient MSW management programs. Thus, in
order to contribute to building a good dataset on MSW for the Southeast Asian region, we quantified solid waste generation and
analyzed waste composition for Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City is a major urban region of Viet Nam in Southeast Asia. In
Ho Chi Minh City, about 8,175 tons of solid waste was generated per day in 2014, consisting 6,800-7,000 of MSW, with 1.02
kg/capita/day generation of waste. The trend in MSW generation from 1992-2010 showed that 98,338 tons of MSW has been
increasing every year. The MSW of Ho Chi Minh City contains 65-90% biodegradable matter. The major portion of MSW was
food waste from 1.4 million households, 1,837 schools, and 12,000 hotels and restaurants. The current common practice of solid
waste management in Ho Chi Minh City is landfilling. About 86% of the total solid waste was landfilled at two major landfill
sites (PhuocHiep and Da Phuoc), and the rest 14% waste was recycled. Paper, plastic, metals, glass were the major waste being
recycled with a quantity of 3364, 3794, 1124, and 384 tons/month, respectively. Further to support the MSW planning in Ho Chi
Minh City, we analyzed gaps and SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats) and provided recommendations to be
incorporated in the action plans for efficient management of solid waste in Ho Chi Minh City.
© 2016
© 2016The TheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier B.V.is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
B.V. This
Peer-review under responsibility ofthe organizing committee of 5IconSWM 2015.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of 5IconSWM 2015
Keywords:Municipal Solid Waste Management, Solid Waste Composition, Landfill, Gaps Analysis, SWOT Analysis Southeast Asia, Ho Chi Minh
City;

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address:ramlalverma@hotmail.com

1878-0296 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of 5IconSWM 2015
doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2016.07.059
128 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139

1. Introduction

Municipal solid wastes (MSW) are unwanted materials or wastes primarily generated from households
including the offices, hotels, shops and shopping complexes, schools, institutions, and from municipal services, such
as, street cleaning and maintenance of parks, gardens and other recreational areas. The major types of MSW are
food wastes, paper, plastic, rags, metal and glass, with some hazardous household wastes, such as, electric light
bulbs, batteries, discarded medicines and automotive parts. Management of MSW is a major challenge in urban
regions in most part of the world including Southeast Asia. Due to the lack of effective management programs,
regulations, and policies; waste is causing sever health hazards including several communicable diseases, bad odors,
nuisance, and environmental impacts, such as, water pollution, soil pollution, and air pollution, if the waste is burnt
in an uncontrolled manner. Most of Southeast Asian Cities are lacking policies, regulations, basic-infrastructure, and
efficient MSW management programs (UNEP, 2004).

With rapid industrialization, urbanization, economic growth, and increasing population with their higher income
and better lifestyle, the quantity of MSW and problems associated with solid waste are becoming a serious problem
in Southeast Asia (Dhokhikah and Trihadiningrum, 2012). The generation of MSW in Southeast Asian mega cities
is a large in terms of volume. For examples, the MSW generation was 8778 tons/day in Bangkok (Udomsri et al.,
2011), 6000 tons/day in Jakarta (Mangkoedihardjo et al., 2007), and 3799 tons/day in Kuala Lumpur (Saeed et al.,
2009). These cities, in general, are not having enough facilities to manage such huge quantities of MSW. This in
turn, results several problems related to health and environment, such as, spreading communicable diseases, bad
odors, nuisance, water pollution, soil pollution, air pollution, and others.

Limited studies have been conducted on MSW management in Southeast Asia in general and Viet Nam in
particular. The Asian Productivity Organization (AOP) published a report on Solid Waste Management: Issues and
Challenges in Asia in 2007 (http://www.apo-tokyo.org/). This report included a chapter on Viet Nam, which pointed
out that the management of MSW, to a certain extent, is inadequate, particularly in urban regions of the country. The
report stated that there were practices of uncontrolled and long-term storage of waste, disposalon site, non-
engineered landfills, and use of waste to fill-up the vacant areas. These practices have resulted in the percolation of
water soluble hazardous components of the waste to the groundwater and contaminating the groundwater. The
discharge of waste withoutadequate treatment in waterbodies, such as the rivers, is causing a contamination of
surface water which is making the water unusable for drinking and becoming harmful to aquatic life. Open burning
of the waste affects the air quality of the region.The chapter on Viet Nam in the above mentioned report was focused
on four provinces/cities, namely, Hanoi, HaiPhong, Hai Duong, and QuangNinh. Ho Chi Minh City, which is the
largest city in Viet Nam, in terms of population and area, was not included in the report. Therefore, in order to build
a good dataset on solid waste management, pertaining waste generation and composition, along with management
practices, such as, transportation, landfilling, recycling, and composting; the present study is focused on Ho Chi
Minh City.

In this study, we quantified solid waste generation and analyzed its composition in order to propose appropriate
methods of management. Further to this, we analyzed gaps in regards to waste management regulation and
economic policies, institutions arrangements, technologies and infrastructure, capacity building, participation of
stakeholders, and financing mechanism. Following this, we made analysis of SWOT that includes the Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in the management of MSW. Based on gaps and SWOT analyses, we
proposed several recommendations to be incorporated in the action plans of Ho Chi Minh City for efficient
management of the MSW.

2. Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City, popularly also known as Saigon, is located in the transition zone between South-East and
South-West of Viet Nam, consisting 24 districts (19 urban or sub urban and 5 rural) with a total area of 2,095,06
km² (Figure 1). The metropolitan area of Ho Chi Minh City is greater than Hanoi, the capital city of Viet Nam. The
City is a center of culture, economy and education. It is the most populous city of Viet Nam with a population of
7.98 million comprising more than 8 percent of the country (Statistical Handbook of Viet Nam, 2014). Due to the
 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139 129

rapid urbanization, economic growth, and migration of people from other parts of the country, the population of Ho
Chi Minh City is growing significantly. Figure 2 shows the trend in the increase of population of Ho Chi Minh City
from 1995 to 2014. In 1995, the population in Ho Chi Minh City was 4.64 million which increased to 9.98 million in
2014. The population increased by twofold in a period of less than 2 decades. The trend shows about 0.19 million
people are increasing in every year in Ho Chi Minh City (Figure 2), with partial contribution from the immigration
of people from other part of Viet Nam for jobs and livelihood. The Government of Viet Nam’s projections indicate
that the population of Ho Chi Minh City is expected to increase by 2.65% between 2016 and 2020.

Fig. 1.Location of Ho Chi Minh City (10.75 °N, 106.67 °E) in Viet Nam. The map of Ho Chi Minh City, shown above, is taken from Van Buuren
and Potting (2011). Zone 1 and Zone 2 (indicated with stars) are two major sanitary landfill sites in Ho Chi Min City

3. Methodology

For this article, data on waste generation in Ho Chi Minh City was collected from the Division of Solid Waste
Management (DOSWM) of the Department of Natural Resource and Management (DONRE), Ho Chi Minh City.
As shown in Figure 1, there are two landfill sites in Ho Chi Minh City, namely, PhuocHiep (Zone 1) and Da Phuoc
(Zone 2). These landfill sites are equipped with heavy duty truck weighing machines. The weight of waste generated
in Ho Chi Minh City was determined by subtracting the weight of truck without-waste from the weight of truck
with-waste.

Segregation of waste into its different components, such as, decomposable or organic (e.g. food waste) and
recyclable (e.g. metals, plastics, cans, etc.) was conducted at the selected collection sites, as well as at the landfill
sites. The recyclable waste was further processed, for example, crushing it into fine pieces and sent to the recycling
company, while the organic waste was either sent to landfills or the composting facility.

For gaps and SWOT analysis, critical review of existing rules and regulations and policy frameworks
concerning the solid waste management has been conducted. Discussions with officials of the DONRE were also
conducted to obtain the knowledge about current practices of waste management and related policies, gaps and
strengths and weakness in the policies and frameworks.
130 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139

4. Result and Discussions

4.1 Waste Generation

With increasing income due to the economic growth and changing of life styles of the people of Ho Chi Minh City,
the generation of solid waste is also increasing proportionally with population growth (Figure 2 and 3). Table 1
illustrates the main sources of solid waste in Ho Chi Minh City. These sources are domestic activities in the
municipality, contributing about 6,800-7,000 tons/day, followed by the construction and demolition (500-800
tons/day), healthcare (20-25 tons/day), and hazardous (250-350 tons/day. Adding up the maximum range of the solid
waste of each source category given in Table 1, the total solid waste generated in Ho Chi Minh City is about 8,175
tons/day. This has been contributed by 1.4 million households; 400 offices buildings, local markets, and
supermarkets; 12,000 service providers, such as, hotels and restaurants; 15 industrial zones with various types of
industries; and 134 hospitals and 600 healthcare centers. Figure 3 shows the trend in the MSW generation in Ho Chi
Minh City. The trend shows that the quantity of MSW has been increasing steadily from 1992 to 2010 at the rate of
98338 tons/year. In 1992, the quantity of MSW generated was approximately 425,000 tons/year, which has
increased to approximately 2.4 million tons/year in 2010. This enhancement in the MSW generation can be
attributed to increasing population.

Table 1: Main sources of solid waste in Ho Chi Min City

Sl. No. Sources Amount (tons/day)

1. Municipal waste 6800-7000

2. Construction and demolition 500-800

3. Healthcare 20-25

4. Hazardous waste 250-350

Total solid waste generation 8175

Data source: DONRE, 2014

Fig. 2.Trend of increasing population in Ho Chi Minh City from

1995-2014 (Source: General Statistics Office of Viet Nam,
http://www.gso.gov.vn/)
 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139 131

Fig. 3.Trend of MSW generation in Ho Chi Minh

City from 1992-2010) (Source DONRE 2010)

Dividing the total solid waste generated (i.e., 8.175 tons/day) in Ho Chi Minh City by its total population (i.e.,
7,981,900), about 1.02 kg solid waste has been generated by each person per day. The 1.02 kg/capita/day generation
of solid waste is higher than 0.61 kg/capita/day (country average) reported by UNEP 2004 for Viet Nam for 2001. In
ASEAN countries, such as in Philippines, daily per capita generation of solid waste was 0.3 kg (rural) 0.5 kg
(urban), in Lao PDR 0.75 kg, Malaysia 0.68 kg and Thailand 0.23 kg in 2001 (UNEP 2004). In the same report,
Singapore was at the top in solid waste generation with a value of about 4.0 kg/capita/day.

Table 2:Components MSW in percentage (wet weight basis) from households, schools, restaurants and hotels

Sl. No. Components Household School Restaurant and Hotels

1 Food waste 61.0 – 96.6 23.5 – 75.8 79.5 – 100
2 Nylon Negligible – 13.0 8.5 – 34.4 Negligible – 5.3
3 Plastics 0.5 – 10.0 3.5 – 18.9 Negligible – 6.0
4 Fabric 1.0 – 5.1 1.0 – 3.1 NA
5 Soft rubber Negligible – 0.3 NA NA
6 Ebonite Negligible – 2.8 NA NA
7 Wood 0.7 – 3.1 NA NA
8 Foam Negligible – 1.3 1.0 – 2.0 Negligible – 2.1
9 Paper 0.7 – 14.2 1.5 – 27.5 Negligible – 2.8
10 Glass 1.65 – 4.0 Negligible – 2.5 Negligible – 1.0
11 Metal 0.9 – 3.3 Negligible NA
12 Hide NA Negligible – 4.2 NA
13 Demolition and soils Negligible – 10.5 NA NA
14 Porcelain Negligible – 3.6 NA NA
15 Carton Negligible – 0.6 NA Negligible – 0.5
16 Cans 0.98 – 2 NA NA
17 Battery NA NA NA
18 Cotton balls Negligible – 2.0 NA NA
19 Branches and leaves 1 – 2.0 NA NA
20 Shells and animal bones Negligible – 9.0 NA NA
Negligible: < 0.5% (wet weight); NA: data not available; Source: DONRE (2009)
132 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139

4.2 Waste Characterization

Table 2illustrates the components of MSW in Ho Chi Minh City contributed from households, schools, and
restaurants and hotels in percentage by wet-weight basis. The Contribution of MSW from a particular source by less
than 0.5 % is designated as negligible. Food waste from the households, schools, and hotels and restaurants were the
largest contributors to total MSW in Ho Chi Minh City, with contribution ranging from 61-96.6% from households,
23.5-75% from schools, and 79.5-100% from hotels and restaurants. Contribution of MSW from these sources about
other types of waste, such as, nylon, plastics, fabric, soft rubber, ebonite, wood, foam, paper, glass, metal, etc. were
minor or negligible(Table 2).

Fig. 4. (a) Physical composition of MSW in dry weight basis (in percentage) in Ho Chi Min City (Source: DONRE 2009)

Fig. 4. (b) Physical composition of MSW in wet weight basis (in percentage) in Ho Chi Min City (Source: DONRE 2009)

Figure 4 (a,b) shows the physical composition of MSW in Ho Chi Minh City, both dry weight and wet weight basis
 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139 133

in percentage. As mentioned, the major components of MSW were contributed from different sources, such as,
households, schools, restaurants and hotels (Table 2). As can be seen in Figure 4, food waste was the largest
component in the MSW, both in dry 51% and wet 69%. Other major components, in wet and dry basis, were plastic
16% and 25%, textile 5% and 7.2%, papers 3% and 4.2%, rubber and leather 1.1% and 2.3%, diapers 3% and 1.8%,
and inorganic waste 1.9% and 5.2%. The rest of the components less than 0.5% are designated or considered
negligible. Thus, based on the physical composition (Figure 4) analysis, the MSW of Ho Chi Minh City consists of
65-90% biodegradable waste or organic waste; 10-25% recyclable waste, such as, plastics, papers, metals; and
remaining non-biodegradable waste.

4.3 Current MSW Management Practices

Ideally, solid waste management should include reduction of waste generation, proper storage and collection,
facilities of transport, adequate treatment and processing, and disposal in a way that it would be in accordance to the
standards that encompass the best principles of health, economics, aesthetics, and environment conservations.

Currently, in Ho Chi Minh City about 85% of MSW is mostly sanitary landfilled and the rest is used for
composting (15% by volume). The landfilling has been done in two active landfill sites, namely, PhuocHiep (Zone
1) and Da Phuoc (Zone 2) (Figure 1),owned and operated by Vietnam Waste Solution, Inc. (VWS)
(http://vnwaste.com). Each landfill site receives approximately the same quantity of MSW. Da Phuoc (128 hectare
area) is located south of Ho Chi Minh City, and belongs to hamlet 1 and hamlet 2 Da Phuoc Commune and
BinhChanh districts. PhuocHiep sanitary landfill (100 hectare area) collects the waste from the remaining districts.
PhuocHiep landfill is located in the complex of the solid waste treatment and disposal under the management of
PhuocHiep Commune, Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City. PhuocHiep landfill is located near residential areas.
PhuocHiep landfill has a weak ground base, as subsidence cases occur frequently.

In Ho Chi Minh City, “household waste separation guidelines at source” have already been deployed in efforts
to reduce the waste going to landfill. The Citenco (http://www.citenco.com.vn), a private company, deployed two
teams to collect organic and inorganic waste, separately. The inorganic waste is collected daily from 16:00 hours,
while organic waste is collected from 17:00 hours to 20:00 hours on Wednesdays and Sundays. To encourage the
people in waste sorting according to organic and inorganic categories, which make efficient transfer of waste, the
Citenco Company has started a process to convert inorganic waste to plastic recycling. The company has started a
pilot project in 2013 to encourage the people to segregate waste in Doc Lap Street, Tan Thanh ward, TanPhu
district. The results are encouraging and, many people have expressed their support. As of March 2014, about 97%
of households were participating in sorting and transferring of the waste by their categories. For sorting of waste, the
households have been provided two types of bins (blue and gray), blue for organic and gray for the remaining waste.
Although it is in limited quantity, the sorted organic waste is currently being used for making the compost. After
sorting, the waste is transferred to a pilot treatment plant at Da Phuoc area for making the compost. The mixed waste
is processed through several stages, such as, drying, crushing, separation of metals, and filtering out other inorganic
waste (e.g. plastic bags and plastic items). The remaining purely organic waste is used for composting. It takes
about 45 days for the entire process of composting and the fertilizer produced is suitable for the crops. Roughly,
from about 1 ton of mixed waste 600 kg compost is produced. In 2012, about 500 tons/day organic waste was
processed for composting. Methane gas produced in sanitary landfills is used for generating electricity.

Table 3:Types and quantities of waste bought by junkshops for recycling

Sl. Quantity of recyclable waste bought by junkshops

Types of waste
No. (tons/month)
1 Paper 3363.8
2 Plastic 3794.2
3 Nilon 39.2
4 Metals 1124.3
5 Glass 384.3
134 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139

Sl. Quantity of recyclable waste bought by junkshops

Types of waste
No. (tons/month)
6 Rag 36.7
7 Scrab 36.6
8 Rubber 34.6

Table 3 illustrates the quality of waste in tons per month recycled in Ho Chi Minh City. Paper and plastic were
the largest types of waste recycled in the city with quantity of 3363.8 and 3794.2, respectively followed by metals
including aluminum, iron, zinc, and lead with total of 1124.3 tons per month, although amount of lead is very small
(0.1 tons/month). Among metals, more than about 1000 tons/month of iron is recycled. Glass is also recycled in a
significant amount (384.3 tons/month)

5. Gaps in MSW Management

5.1 Regulatory and Economic Policies

Due to the economic development, many industrial zones have been established inside and outside of Ho Chi
Minh City. Municipal and hazardous waste that the City is receiving comes not only from the city region but also
from nearby provinces. The economic development has attracted immigrants from other parts of Viet Nam to work
in Ho Chi Minh City and nearby provinces, causing a rapid population growth thus causing the solid waste to
increase year-by-year. The government has set policies and standards for the waste sectors. However, due to limited
involvement of stakeholders in the policy making process, the policies and standards in terms of the implementation
and enforcement may need some improvement. The guideline on household waste separation at the source to reduce
the amount of waste to landfill is in need for improvement.

5.2 Institutional Framework

Although the legal framework of solid waste management in Viet Nam has been enhanced, the laws have not
yet been given clear responsibilities for any of the concerned authorities. This has led to a situation where solid
waste management is under control by multiple agencies with overlapping authority, thus resulting in solid waste
being in need of improvement. It is difficult to take into account the responsibility and accountability among the
various authorities regarding the solid waste management (Viet et al., 2009). Under the control of national
organizations, the institutional framework of SWM in Ho Chi Minh City is also in the same situation, which is quite
complicated to operate.

5.3 Technological and Infrastructure

Regarding technologies and infrastructure of SWM in Ho Chi Minh City, there are some limitations as well.
Currently, solid waste classification in Ho Chi Minh City has remained with limited resources due to the lack of
advanced technology. In addition, current technologies for MSW treatment in Ho Chi Minh City are mostly sanitary
landfills and composting. The high organic fraction of MSW creates problems for large-scale mechanical separation
and mixed waste composting. In terms of the recycling, since most of recycling facilities are small businesses,
investment in recycling technology may not be affordable for such entities and thus may lead to low quality of
recycled products. The operating landfills are causing environmental problems. Various landfill gases such as GHGs
(e.g. methane) and small amount of CO, N2, H2S, NH3 and others are released from the landfill sites (Sang et al.,
2010). In addition, leachate is also one of the main problems of landfills. Thus, Ho Chi Minh City needs to install
environmentally sound technology (EST) from developed countries to manage its solid waste in a sustainable
manner. In terms of waste collection, this stage has been implemented by collection network with more than 18,000
workers using an outdated transport system. For instance, the collection handcar is old and in a low hygienic
condition. These fleets need to be renewed for faster and better service. In addition to this, the transfer stations are
not sufficient enough to accommodate the waste, causing it to be in bad hygienic conditions leading to concerns of
leachate, air and odor pollution. Two categories of transfer stations do not have a vehicle washing system, air
 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139 135

pollution system and wastewater treatment system. The existing landfills do not meet the needs of Ho Chi Minh City
waste, as they always receive big volume of solid waste daily.

5.4 Capacity Building

Capacity building is seen as an important concern in Viet Nam in solid waste management. In MSW
management of Ho Chi Minh City, the officers are lacking technical capacity and need to improve their skills on
solid waste management. This leads to the limited capacity and may affect solid waste management operation and
implementation in an efficient and effective manner, as Ho Chi Minh City is too large to be controlled. The lack of
human resources, specifically, the lacking of expert and staff who have deep knowledge on solid waste
management, is also a problem in Ho Chi Minh City. The waste separation at the household source is not effective
due to the lack of awareness of local people. For a long-term solution, it would be advantageous to organize a
campaign for the local people, to let them participate in solid waste management in their residential areas.

5.5 Financial Mechanism

In the case of financial mechanism of Ho Chi Minh City, financial support for solid waste management comes
from the city government whose process commonly has various limitations. The administrative process in Viet Nam
has several complications due to the many relevant authorities. This situation may be the cause of the lack of
funding or delayed funding for MSW management. Hence, in its best interest, the city requires more investment and
financial support from outside organizations.

6. SWOT Analysis of Waste Management

The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is a tool to identify the positive and
negative points of the performance of any process, organization, project, and company. Strengths and weaknesses
are internal factors while opportunities and threats are external factors. We applied SWOT analysis on the MSW
management of Ho Chi Minh City to prioritize the current issues on the MSW while enhancing the positive points
and minimizing the negative ones in the future city strategies. Table 4illustrated the SWOT analysis for Ho Chi
Minh City MSW management.

6.1 Strengths

The strength of the city is its strong private sectors, consisting of companies or business groups, which have a
strong capacity to manage MSW by using the Environmentally Sound Technologies (EST) during the collection,
transport, treatment, composting, and final disposal. Ho Chi Minh City is the most developed city in Viet Nam. The
city attracts a large in-flow of immigrants from other provinces to live and work there. Hence, the large number of
manual labor could meet the demand of MSW management in the city. Informal sectors play an important role in
collection and recycling of waste.

6.2 Weaknesses

The city certainly has various weaknesses which need to be addressed. As mentioned in gap analysis, the
complexity of the institutional framework may be a challenge for implementing sustainable SWM. Due to the lack
of stakeholders’ participation in setting up of the regulation or standard, their ability to meet with standards will be
low, especially private companies. The limited capacity of environmental staff or experts is a disadvantage for the
city. In terms of the financial issue, limited support from the government is an issue when implementing any
activities. This issue is leading to poor infrastructure with lack of transportation stations as well as outdated
transportation vehicles for waste collection and transportation operation. Besides this, it also leads to weak
environmental protection in the landfill which produces leachate and gas emissions. The landfill design and
operation are not efficient. As well known, the private sectors play a very important role in SWM, however, they
may not be involved in most of the programmes and activities. The waste separation, that needs to be implemented
136 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139

in households, is lacking at the moment.

Table 4: SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of MSW management of in Ho Chi Minh City

Strengths Weaknesses

x Private sectors have strong capacity to manage MSW,
including collection, transport, treatment, and dispose of while
applying environmentally sound technologies.
x Availability of strong human resources (including manual
labor) to meet the demand of MSW management.
Internal Factors
x Weak legal and institutional framework for solid waste
management (SWM), especially implementation, monitoring
and evaluation (M&E).
x Policy and standards do not meet ability of stakeholders (e.g.
private sectors).

x Informal sectors plays important role in recycling of MSW.
Opportunities
x Lack of experts and staff who have technical knowledge and
skills in SWM.
x Lack of financial support from government.
x Lack of technologies for SWM.
x Poor infrastructure (e.g. landfill design and operation is not
efficient.
x Weak environmental protection in landfills
x Does not take advantages of private sector role in SWM.
x Lack of waste separation at source due to lack environmental
awareness of local people
Threats

x City location is good for attracting investment from outside x Rapid economic growth and changing life style increased
foreign and internal organizations. consumption of resources which in turn increasing waste
External Factors

x Better engagement of private sectors in SWM by changing generation.

economic structures and policies. x Increasing population due to migration from other part of
x Being a biggest city, the national government has focused on country resulting increased waste generation.
city development and MSW plan will be supported by the x Harsh climate as a logistical constraint.
government.
x With high fraction of organic waste (65-90%) there are
opportunities and potential of converting waste to energy or
waste to compost.

6.3 Opportunities

Ho Chi Minh City is located in the center of the Southeast Asian Region, the place that has the fastest growth in
the world and a market of more than 600 million people. From Ho Chi Minh City, it is also a short distance to other
promising nearby markets such as other ASEAN countries, China and India. For example, Ho Chi Minh City is
1,700 km south of Hanoi, 297 km east of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 881 km east of Bangkok, Thailand. For
businesses, location is obviously crucial because a convenient and strategic location helps them to save a lot of
money and time for transportation. This would be the first opportunity for the city. In addition to this, due to the
significant role of the city for national economy, the national government is focused on city development. Thereby,
the MSW management plan could be supported from the government. As for the specific opportunity of the waste
management issue, with high percentage of organic waste (>70%), there is a potential of converting waste to energy
and waste to compost.

6.4 Threats

Lastly, the threats of city are also defined. Since the city is the heart of all economic activities of Vietnam, it has
attracted a large flow of immigrants from other provinces to live and work in the city, which is also the reason why
MSW in the city is increasing. More importantly, in the context of climate change, MSW management may also be
effected. For landfill, an effect of flooding is evident, which exacerbate to address the current issues as well as
environmental problems of landfill (Hoang and Viet, 2011).
 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139 137

7. Recommendations for Action Plans

In order make an effective action plan for proper management of MSW, the following recommendations may be
incorporated in the action plans. The Department of Natural Resource and Management (DONRE), The Division of
Solid Waste Management (DOSWM), The Department of Education and Training (DOEAT), People’s Committee
(PC) of Ho Chi Minh City, City Finance Office (CFO), The Local Corporation, The Non- Government
Organizations, and private sectors may play a pivotal role at their capacities to make effective action plans.

7.1 Campaigns on Public Awareness

Information sharing campaigns may be organized to raise the awareness of local people on segregation of waste
at the source and encourage them to practice in 3Rs (reuse, reduce, and recycle). It is essential to organize public-
participation programs in order to obtain better results. In order to examine local awareness on waste separation at
source, a household interview may be conducted. A target, for example 5-10% reduction in waste generation per
year may be set. Schools are the best place to start the awareness campaign as young minds learn quickly. At school
levels, 3R related activities may be conducted because students would play an important role in future. This activity
will not only raise awareness of students but also the students’ families.

7.2 Effort to Increase Recycling

As per information from DONRE/DOSWM, the waste generation in 2014 was about 8,175 tons/day. Out of
8,175 tons, 7,000 tons/ day are sent to landfill sites. Thus, the landfill rate is (LR = L ÷ G = 7,000 ÷ 8,175 = 0.86)
about 86% and recycling of waste is about 14% only. According to estimation the MSW generation in Ho Chi Minh
City in 2012 will be 6-8% more than the current rate. Therefore, in 2020, the waste generation may be around
38,115,000 tons/day (increased by 8%/year). Given that, if no action to reduce the waste generation, the landfill rate
would be 32,778,900 tons/day (86% of 38,115,000). Assuming, if the rate of recycling would remain 14%,
therefore, to face the challenging situation, action plans with strong emphasis on 3Rs is needed.

7.3 Fee of MSW Management

In addition to promoting 3Rs, the government may convince the local people to pay a fee for waste management
services willingly and encourage them to reduce waste generation from households. Imposing waste management
fee may lead to a reduction in waste generation at the household level.

7.4 Resource recovery

It is important that the designed anaerobic digestion plant would meet the standards of the surrounding selected
market area. Provision of “working guidelines” for landfill staff and workers is very significant to reduce as much as
possible the environmental risks.

7.5 Building Transportation Stations

The first activity proposed to be accomplished is the preparation of the building location, design, standards,
regulations and especially the finance for transportation stations. The need of conducting this activity is due to the
lack of transportation stations within the city, which leads to difficulties during the waste collection and
transportation stages.

7.6 Renewing Transportation Vehicles

Since the transportation vehicles are outdated, the waste collection stage faces many difficulties while
operating. It is proposed to renew transportation vehicles to have a more effective service. Thus, the first activity of
this action is the preparation of finance and implementation for renewing vehicles. At the same time, monitoring of
the renewed transportation vehicles may need to be installed.
138 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139

7.7 Capacity Building of Staff

Enhancing the skills of staff is also necessary for proper management of MSW. Capacity building for
environmental staff needs to be concerned since they will be the key actors. To do so, staff may be encouraged to
take the training courses on the SWM. Implementation of training courses and evaluation after training courses may
be done. To provide opportunities for the environmental staff to build their technical skills through city-exchange
capacity building, study abroad is always beneficial as staff to get exposure and learn new techniques and
technologies. Preparation of human resources and finance for the study tours is important. The performance
indicator of the abroad study is based on how staff executes their duties.

7.8 Public Private Partnership in SWM

Public Private Partnership (PPP) plays a significant role in the environmental protection, especially in the case
when the private sector has a strong capacity to help the SWM in Ho Chi Minh City to become more effective with
big finance potential. The formulation of stakeholders’ networking should be the first activity, which would help to
figure out all related private sectors in the solid waste sector. Following this, a stakeholder agreement needs to be
developed to ensure responsibility, duties and benefits of each stakeholder in this cooperation.

8. Conclusion

This study contributed in building a good dataset on MSW in Southeast Asian region in general, particularly Ho
Chi Minh City, for supporting MSW management planning. Solid waste generation in Ho Chi Minh City is about
8,175 tons/day, consisting 6,800-7,000 of MSW, with 1.02 kg/capita/day. Every year, about 98,338 tons of MSW
has been increasing, with major portion of food waste from the households, schools, and hotels and restaurants.
Current common practice of solid waste management in Ho Chi Minh City is landfilling. About 86% of solid waste
is landfilled at two major landfill sites (PhuocHiep and Da Phuoc) and the rest is recycled. Paper, plastic, and metals
are among the major recyclable waste. The Gaps analysis revealed that, there are number of gaps in the regulation
and economic policies, institutions framework and arrangements, technologies and infrastructure, capacity building,
participation of stakeholders, and financing mechanism. One of the most important gaps is that there is a lack of
clear responsibility and accountability of several institution for the MSW management in Ho Chi Minh City due to
involvement of multi agencies. The SWOT analysis pointed out that the private sector could play a pivotal role, as
strength of the city, in MSW management, if the regulatory and policy related weaknesses are resolved.
Opportunities of foreign supports are there due to the strategic location of Ho Chi Minh City in Southeast Asian
region but increasing the population needs to be minimized. Based on gaps and SWOT analysis, several
recommendations were proposed, such as, organizing public awareness programs, which could start from the
schools; increasing efforts for recycling, keeping in mind future population growth; charging waste management
fee; resource recovery, building transport stations for efficient transport of waste, renewing transport vehicles;
capacity building programs for staff including abroad training and courses on waste management; and encouraging
public private partnerships in SWM.

Acknowledgment:

The authors profoundly acknowledged the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) for supporting this study
under the framework of Municipal Solid Waste Management Initiative (CCAC-MSWI). The authors are thankful to
International Environmental Technology Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP-IETC) for
providing coordination with the Department of Natural Resource and Management (DONRE) and Division of Solid
Waste Management (DOSWM) of Viet Nam. The authors are also thankful DONRE and DOSWM for assisting in
data collection from various sources in Ho Chi Minh City.
 R.L. Verma et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 35 (2016) 127 – 139 139

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