According to VEA, the most common types of waste are paper, plastic, glass, steel and aluminium cans.

"You can see plastic and paper packaging waste everywhere as they are used everyday," said Nguyen Trung Viet, head of the HCM City’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s Solid Waste Management Office. However, he said few people are aware of the harmful impact these materials have on the environment, which can take 400 years to degrade.

"As rubbish is not separated, much of it goes into landfills, but while organic waste will degrade over time, plastic lasts for hundreds of years," he said. So far this year, HCM City has produced more than 762,000 tonnes of plastic packaging and 800 tonnes of paper packaging, he said.

Lack of technology

Making matters worse, the country lacks the technology to recycle much of the waste it produces, said deputy head of the VEA Bui Cach Tuyen. "Urban rubbish is a mixture of different kinds of waste – construction materials such as cement, sand and gravel, which is hard to recycle," he said.

"Meanwhile, due to backward recycling technology, most recycling companies are unable to reprocess the rubbish to produce compost for agricultural production. However, the market for this product is too limited as farmers are not really interested in this kind of compost," he said. Tuyen added that few people take the time to separate their rubbish, making recycling harder. Ha Noi and HCM City municipalities have set up recycling centres to encourage people to separate their rubbish into organic and inorganic waste. "However, people seem to ignore the main function of these dustbins and still throw all kinds of rubbish together," he said.

Nguyen Quynh Chi, who lives in Ha Noi’s Bach Khoa ward, said she did not know the difference between organic and inorganic waste. "It is not easy for us to separate rubbish into different kinds as we do not know what organic and inorganic waste is. Moreover, it is inconvenient to put rubbish into different bags in your house as it causes a big mess," she said. "Besides, I do not have the time to separate my rubbish."

Le Van An, head of residential building B7 in Thanh Xuan district, Ha Noi, said last year local authorities gave each household two small dustbins for recyclable and non-recyclable waste. "People still have a habit of putting all kinds of rubbish in the same dustbin. We held many campaigns to encourage local people to separate out their rubbish but it is really difficult to change people’s mindset," he said.

"The city has now installed two kinds of dustbin for organic and inorganic rubbish along main streets but they received little attention from the public. Some people don’t even put their rubbish in the bins, they just throw it on the street for sanitation workers to pick up, while some street-food sellers use the dust bins to store water to wash their hands," An added.

The HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment implemented a similar project in Districts 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, and Binh Thanh and Phu Nhuan districts to encourage people to separate out their rubbish but there was little public interest, Viet said.

"The law on environmental protection does not cover household waste, making the job of recycling all the rubbish more difficult," he said. In HCM City, there are around 700 firms that collect household waste for recycling but the majority of these businesses are small-scale and do not have the resources to invest in modern technology, he added.

The way out

Tuyen said the public needs to be made aware of their responsibility to protect the environment. "Raising public awareness about the need to recycle waste is the most important task facing us, particularly among people in rural areas," Tuyen said.

Dr Tran Thi My Dieu, from Van Lang University in HCM City, said certain kinds of waste should be seen as a valuable resource.

Each tonne of paper packaging that is recycled reduces the need to cut down trees, saving 4,200kWh of electricity and 32cu.m of water, she said. She said there needs to be huge investment in recycling waste, which the Government should encourage by providing financial incentives.

The director of the HCM City Waste Recycle Fund, Le Van Khoa, said the State should levy a tax on waste produced by plastic – and paper-packaging makers and issue preferential policies to encourage those businesses to recycle their products.

Viet said HCM City was building 10 recycling plants, while Ha Noi’s Construction Department was investing VND879 million (US$48.800) in the treatment of solid waste.