Long An province: To launch waste segregation at source model for rural areas of Vinh Hung district

On July 24, 2023, the International Organization for Conservation of Nature in Vietnam, in collaboration with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Long An province, and the People's Committee of Vinh Hung district, organized the event "Launch Waste Segregation at source model for rural areas in Vinh Hung district, Long An province.

Along with the socioeconomic development in recent years, the increase in shopping and consumption demand has created a large amount of domestic waste. If not collected and treated properly, this amount of household waste, especially plastic waste, will become a serious environmental burden.

In Long An province, the management of domestic solid waste has been paid attention by the province, issued many documents directing the implementation. At the same time, Long An province with the accompanying support of the Project has developed a domestic solid waste management project for Long An province and implemented pilot activities since 2018. After that, piloted in urban areas of Long An province, particularly in Ward 3, Tan An City with a scale of 4,800 households in 2020, and very positive results have been achieved.

Specifically, the waste in the area has been collected, transported, and treated separately. More than 85% of people agree and actively participate in sorting waste at source. Thereby reducing 30% - 40% of waste to be burned/buried (which is the amount of organic waste separated from mixed waste to make compost), contributing to raising people's awareness about management. and waste disposal, saving resources, and reducing waste treatment costs for the locality. This model is currently being extended to the whole area of Tan An city.

Following the success of the model for urban areas, the project in collaboration with the People's Committee of Long An province continues to pilot the model of waste separation at source and produce organic fertilizer for rural areas for about 3450 households. The family lives in the whole Vinh Hung town and is a part of the Thai Tri commune, Vinh Hung district. According to the pilot plan, households, motels, production facilities, schools, restaurants, cafeterias, etc. will classify waste into 3 categories: food waste, recyclable waste, and recyclable waste. reuse and residual garbage. After being classified, the waste will be collected and transported separately to the Vinh Hung Waste Treatment Plant to produce organic fertilizer or be treated separately according to regulations.

Delegates visited the compost production line

Mr. Vo Minh Thanh, Director of Long An Department of Natural Resources and Environment directed "The implementation of the Pilot Program on waste separation at source in rural areas, specifically in Vinh Hung town and Thai Tri commune is an opportunity for us to confirm our determination in waste management, especially recycling and energy recovery from waste. From the results of this pilot program, the People's Committee of Vinh Hung District actively deploys and replicates the remaining communes in Vinh Hung District in 2023. At the same time, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment monitors and draws experience. waste separation model at source and notify the People's Committees of districts and towns in the province to simultaneously deploy in the coming time".

Mr. Võ Văn Bảo - Vice Chairman of the Vinh Hung District Committee speaks in response to the mode

Mr. Vo Van Bao, leader of Vinh Hung District People's Committee said: “In recent years, with the socioeconomic development, in addition to the increase in domestic solid waste with the total volume of generated solid waste. Current activity in Vinh Hung district is relatively huge, about 22.5 tons/day. Currently, in the district, there is a garbage treatment plant to serve the treatment of daily-life solid waste, but in the past time, the classification of waste at the source has not been done, so the trash is collected all to the factory, causing serious damage to the environment. overload for treatment and the amount of waste to be buried is very large and incurs great costs in waste treatment. We strive to complete the classification of domestic solid waste at source by the end of 2023 in Vinh Hung town and Thai Tri commune before replicating it in the whole district.”

Long An province: To launch waste segregation at source model for rural areas of Vinh Hung district.

Also the pilot plan, WWF-Vietnam, through the project "Waste management in the Mekong Delta" will support equipment for the pilot including 3,450 household waste bins, 200 household composting bins, 3 large capacity 3000L community compost bins with guard houses, and operating power lines, 157 public trash cans, 16 handcarts, 2 garbage collection trucks and 1 production line producing organic fertilizer with a capacity of 5 tons/day.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Dieu Thuy, Program Director of Plastic Reduction emphasized: “If domestic waste is not classified but is lumped together, it will cause a lot of difficulties in treatment. The implementation of the waste separation model at source in Vinh Hung district is one of the important steps in the journey of environmental protection in the area, as well as increasing the life cycle of materials with high recycling value such as plastic. With the active and responsible participation of everyone, I believe that the pilot model will be successful as a basis for replication in other rural areas of Long An province in particular and the Mekong Delta. Cuu Long in general - is towards a goal of zero plastic waste in nature in the not-too-distant future.

Source: www.tainguyenvamoitruong.vn