What are the current regulations on waste management in environmental protection activity in Vietnam? What are the solutions and principles to reduce solid waste?

Main Content

• What are the current regulations on waste management in environmental protection activity in Vietnam?
• Who is responsible for waste management and implementation of preferential policies and support for waste management activities in Vietnam?
• What are the solutions and principles to reduce solid waste in environmental protection activities in Vietnam?

What are the current regulations on waste management in environmental protection activity in Vietnam?

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 3 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020:

Definitions

For the purposes of this Law, the terms below shall be construed as follows:

...

2. “environmental protection activity” means preventing and reducing adverse impacts on the environment; responding to environmental emergencies; mitigating environmental pollution and degradation, improving environmental quality; reasonably using natural resources and biodiversity, and adapting to climate change.

Thus, environmental protection is preventing and reducing adverse impacts on the environment that affect human life, economy, society, existence, and development of humans and nature.

Waste management in environmental protection activity in Vietnam (Image from the Internet)

Waste management requirements are one of the important contents in environmental protection, currently specified in Clauses 1 and 2, Article 72 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 as follows:

- General requirements for management of domestic solid waste, hazardous waste and normal industrial solid waste are as follows:

+ Waste must be managed during its generation, reduction, classification, collection, storage, transfer, transport, reuse, recycling, treatment and disposal;

+ Hazardous waste and normal industrial solid waste source owners shall reuse, recycle, treat and recover energy from such waste or transfer them to licensed facilities having appropriate environmental license;

+ Controlled industrial waste source owner shall identify whether waste is hazardous waste or normal industrial solid waste through the sample collection and analysis carried out by competent facilities in accordance with regulations of law. After the identification, industrial waste must be managed as prescribed by law;

+ Waste that satisfies standards and technical regulations applicable to raw materials, fuels and materials in accordance with regulations of law on quality of products and goods must be managed as the products and goods and is permitted to be used as raw materials, fuels and materials in production activities;

+ Entities that transport domestic solid waste, hazardous waste and normal industrial solid waste subject to treatment shall transport waste to licensed facilities having appropriate environmental licenses or transfer them to other transporters to be transported to licensed facilities having an appropriate environmental license;

+ The management of radioactive waste shall comply with regulations of law atomic energy.

- General requirements for waste management are as follows:

+ Wastewater must be collected and treated according to technical regulations on environment before being discharged into the receiving bodies;

+ It is advisable to reuse wastewater that satisfies environmental protection requirements and serves intended purposes;

+ Wastewater whose environmental parameters exceed the permissible levels must be managed in accordance with hazardous waste management;

+ The discharge of treated wastewater into the environment must be managed in accordance with regulations of law on environmental protection and relevant to the carrying capacity of receiving water bodies;

- Exhaust gases must be collected and treated in accordance with environmental protection requirements;

- Every entity that generates waste shall adopt resource- and energy-efficient solutions; use environmentally-friendly raw materials, fuels and materials and renewable energy; apply cleaner production technologies and programs, control environment and other measures to minimize waste generation; update information to the national environmental database upon transfer of hazardous waste and normal industrial solid waste subject to treatment to facilities having an appropriate environmental license.

- The State shall introduce a policy to encourage private sector involvement in collection, transport, reuse, recycling and treatment of waste and recovery of energy from the treatment of waste; apply advanced and environmentally-friendly technologies for waste management and best available techniques in order to minimize and control the generation of secondary waste, minimize solid waste ending up buried; encourage the co-processing of waste and use of waste as substitute materials, fuels and materials.

Thus, the current requirements for waste management comply with the above regulations.

Who is responsible for waste management and implementation of preferential policies and support for waste management activities in Vietnam?

Specifically, in Article 72 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, there are regulations on waste management to meet the requirements of environmental protection as follows:

- Every entity that generates waste shall adopt resource- and energy-efficient solutions; use environmentally-friendly raw materials, fuels and materials and renewable energy; apply cleaner production technologies and programs, control environment and other measures to minimize waste generation; update information to the national environmental database upon transfer of hazardous waste and normal industrial solid waste subject to treatment to facilities having an appropriate environmental license.

- The State shall introduce a policy to encourage private sector involvement in collection, transport, reuse, recycling and treatment of waste and recovery of energy from the treatment of waste; apply advanced and environmentally-friendly technologies for waste management and best available techniques in order to minimize and control the generation of secondary waste, minimize solid waste ending up buried; encourage the co-processing of waste and use of waste as substitute materials, fuels and materials.

- The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment shall promulgate a list of hazardous waste, controlled industrial waste and normal industrial solid waste; technical requirements for environmental protection for vehicles transporting domestic solid waste, normal industrial solid waste and hazardous waste.

- Provincial People’s Committees shall manage waste within their provinces; promulgate waste management regulations and implement policies to provide incentives and assistance for waste management as prescribed by law.

- The Government shall elaborate the prevention, reduction, classification, collection, transport, reuse, recycling and treatment of waste.

Accordingly, the provincial People’s Committees shall manage waste within their provinces; promulgate waste management regulations and implement policies to provide incentives and assistance for waste management as prescribed by law.

What are the solutions and principles to reduce solid waste in environmental protection activities in Vietnam?

According to Article 56 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, the waste generated shall be minimized by applying measures to improve the efficiency in production or in using products.

In addition, the use of discarded products and solid waste generated from production, business operation, service provision and consumption must comply with the principle of making full use of value of discarded products and solid waste by adopting measures in the following order of priority:

- Recycle discarded products;

- Repair, maintain or upgrade defective and old products to extend their useful life;

- Make use of parts of discarded products;

- Recycle solid waste to recover raw materials, fuels and materials in service of manufacturing activities as prescribed by law;

- Treat solid waste in combination with recovering energy as prescribed by law;

- Bury solid waste as prescribed by law.