Description

According to the revised Law on Environmental Protection 2020, which will take effect from 1st January 2021, the cost for collection, transferring, and treatment of domestic solid waste will be based on the volume and weight of the waste (Point 1, Article 79). This means, the more waste discarded, the higher the fee. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) is responsible for developing specific regulations and guidance. The local People’s Committees are in charge of waste classification. All localities have to apply waste sorting no later than 31st December 2024 (Point 7, Article 79).

Presently, the waste collection fee is calculated following the number of people in a household. For urban areas, it amounts to 25.000 – 30.000 VNĐ ($1.08-1.29)/household/month. Daily about 64,000 tons of domestic waste are generated in Vietnam, 54% of this originates from the urban areas (data for 2019, National Thematic Report on Environment 2020). The majority of domestic waste in Vietnam is dumped into the environment or landfilled. In big cities like Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City, landfills have been overloaded.

The waste collection services can refuse to collect the waste if households do not sort waste properly or do not use the specialized bags or containers (Point 2, Article 77). Violating waste sorting can be fined up to 15 – 20 million VNĐ (Point 4, Article 20, Decree 155/2016/NĐ-CP).

Sources & further information: “Từ 1/1/2022, xả rác càng nhiều trả tiền càng cao” at https://kinhtemoitruong.vn, “Từ 01/01/2022, càng xả nhiều rác, càng phải đóng nhiều tiền” at https://luatvietnam.vn, “Người dân không phân loại rác sẽ bị từ chối thu gom từ 1-1-2022” at https://anninhthudo.vn, “Vietnam to apply pay-as-you-throw model by 2025” at https://e.vnexpress.net, and “Báo cáo môi trường quốc gia 2020 – Chất thải rắn sinh hoạt”, accessed on 13 December 2021.