Current status and trend of municipal solid waste management in the Mekong delta

Abstract

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the biggest challenges in the Vietnamese Mekong delta (VMD). Although there have been many changes in the application of MSW treatment in recent years, landfilling still predominates in VMD. Annually, the total amount of MSW collected was 2,538,284 tons, landfill accounted for the most significant amount of 2,115,913.62 tons/year (83.36%), followed by incineration at 247,482.7 tons/year (9.75%), and composting 74,371.72 tons/year (2.93%). Calculating according to the annual amount of MSW generated 3,940,823 tons/year, the respective rates were 53.69, 6.28, and 1.89% plus an uncollected MSW rate of 23.37% (lost approximately 920,970.34 tons MSW/year). Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the amount of MSW lost by upgrading the collectiontransportation infrastructure and choosing an appropriate MSW treatment solution. A simple weighted matrix method was established to compare the efficiency of the MSW treatment solutions. The analysis results showed that priority should be focused on choosing critical treatment solutions such as composting, sanitary landfills and incineration with power generation in accordance with sufficient technical requirements, environmental impact reduction, greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, and land saving.