DECISION

APPROVING ADJUSTMENTS TO NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF SOLID WASTE TO 2025 WITH VISION TOWARDS 2050

PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Government organization dated June 19, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on Environmental Protection dated June 23, 2014;

Pursuant to the Law on Construction dated June 18, 2014;

Pursuant to Decree No.38/2015/ND-CP dated April 24, 2015 of the Government on management of waste and discarded materials;

Pursuant to Decree No.59/2007/ND-CP dated April 09, 2007 of the Government on management of solid waste;

At the request of the Minister of Construction, Natural Resources and Environment,

HEREBY DECIDES

Article 1. Approval for the adjustments to the national strategy for general management of solid waste up to 2025 with vision towards 2050 with contents as follows:

1. Viewpoints

a) General management of solid waste means the management of solid waste life cycle from its generation to the final treatment stage including the prevention, reduction, classification, collection, reusing, recycling and final treatment of waste for the purpose of protecting human’s health, environment, saving natural resources, adapting to climate change towards sustainable development of the country.

b) The whole community is responsible for the general management of solid waste, in which the State plays the leading role; the waste will be managed by promoting the investment and private sector involvement, mobilizing all resources and complying the rule “the polluter must be fined". As a result, organizations and individuals releasing waste which results in the environment pollution and degradation must provide funding, take action and compensate for the loss as regulated by laws.

c) General management of solid waste must be done in inter-region and inter-sector to ensure the optimal development of economy, technique, social and environmental safety in consistent with natural and socio-economic conditions and adheres to the planning included in the national planning system.

d) Discharged solid waste must be treated as resources, classified, collected in consistent with selected waste treatment technology; transformed into environmentally-friendly materials, fuels or products in combination with energy recovery, land economy depending on natural and socio-economic conditions of each local authority, region and the country.

dd) Investments in consistent solid management system include the establishment of solid waste treatment facilities, collection and transport stage according to appropriate technologies. Focus on key investment projects and prioritize the investment in particular period, prevent unfocused and ineffective investments.

2. A vision to 2050

Strive to reach the objective of collecting, reusing, recycling and treating all types of solid waste by advanced and environmentally-friendly technologies depending on real conditions of each local authority for minimizing the volume of waste to be buried by 2050

3. Objectives

a) General objectives

- Basically prevent, control and limit the increasing discharge of solid waste, minimize environmental pollution caused by solid waste as a way to protect human's health and environment, adapt to climate change towards sustainable development of the country.

- Increase the capacity of general management of solid waste, concurrently adopting solutions for promoting the storing, collecting, transporting, reusing, recycling and treatment of solid waste; expand the solid waste collecting network; foster the separating of solid waste at source in combination with preventing and minimizing solid waste discharged from daily-life activities, production, business and service; promote private sector involvement and attract investments from private or foreign organizations in daily-life solid waste management.

- Apply advanced and environmentally-friendly technologies for treating solid waste, select solid waste treatment technologies that are safe, combined with energy recovery, greenhouse gas emission and consistent with conditions for socio-economic development of each local authority; develop recycle industry, encourage the use and consumption of products of solid waste treatment process.

b) Particular objectives to be reached by 2025:

- In terms of hazardous solid waste:

+ 100% of hazardous solid waste discharged from production, business, service, medical facilities, trade villages must be collected, transported and treated satisfying the environmental protection requirement;

+ 85% of hazardous solid waste discharged from households or individuals must be collected, transported and treated satisfying the environmental protection requirement;

+ 100% of electronic equipment producers must establish and publish facilities for the recovery of waste products as regulated by laws.

- In terms of urban solid waste:

+ All special-grade and grade-I urban centers as well as 85% of other urban centers shall recycle solid waste in consistent with the separating of waste in households;

+ 90% of daily-life solid waste discharged in urban centers must be collected and treated satisfying the environmental protection requirement; increase the capacity to recycle, reuse and treat solid waste in combination with energy recovery or organic fertilizer production; strive to reach the goal of achieving less than 30% of collected solid waste disposed by burial;

+ Use 100% environmentally-friendly plastic bags in trade centers, supermarkets for the purpose of replacing persistent plastic bags to serve daily-life activities;

+90 – 95% of daily-life solid waste landfills in urban centers that have been closed will have their lands rehabilitated and reused;

+ The investment in construction of solid waste treatment facilities must ensure that less than 20% of solid waste will be disposed by burial

- In terms of rural solid waste:

+ 80% of daily-life solid waste discharged in rural settlements must be collected, stored, transported, and undergo the self-treatment or concentrated treatment satisfying the environmental protection requirement; reuse or recycle ceiling organic waste into compost or provide home-based treatment of solid waste by transforming them into compost for using at site;

+ 95% of daily-life solid waste landfills in rural areas that have been closed will have their lands rehabilitated and reused; strive to reach the goal of handling 100% spontaneous landfills not included in the planning meeting the environmental protection requirement;

+ The investment in construction of solid waste treatment facilities must ensure that less than 20% of solid waste will be disposed by burial

- In terms of ordinarily industrial solid waste:

+ 100% of ordinarily industrial solid waste discharged from production, trading and service facilities as well as trade villages shall be collected, reused, recycled and treated meeting the environmental protection requirement;

+ 80% of ash, slag and gypsum discharged from power, chemicals and fertilizer plants shall be recycled, reused and treated as materials for production, construction, land grading, etc meeting the environmental protection requirement.

- In terms of other particular solid waste:

+ 90% of total building solid waste discharged from urban centers shall be collected and treated meeting the environmental protection requirement, 60% of which will be reused or recycled into products, materials by appropriate technologies;

+ 100% of sludge of septic tank collected in urban centers will be handled for environmental protection assurance;

+ 80% of solid waste discharged from cattle and poultry farming will be collected, reused or recycled into compost, biogas and treated meeting environmental protection requirement;

+ 80% of agricultural by-products generated by businesses of agriculture must be collected, reused or recycled into friendly-environment materials, fuels or products;

+ 100% of chemical and pesticide packaging used in agriculture industry must be collected, stored and handled as regulated by laws;

+ 100% of medical solid waste discharged from medical facilities or hospitals will be separated, collected, stored, transported and treated meeting the environmental protection requirement.

4. Basic missions

a) With regard to hazardous solid waste:

- Hazardous solid waste shall be strictly managed and controlled from the discharging stage to the stage of collecting, transporting and final treatment. Hazardous solid waste treatment technologies shall be diversified by modern and advanced technologies;

- Electronic equipment producers must establish and publish waste products recovery facilities as regulated by laws; consumers are responsible to take waste products to recovery facilities or to organizations and individuals eligible to collect and take them to recovery facilities as regulated by laws;

- Encourage inter-regional and inter-provincial collection and treatment of hazardous waste; establish and develop concentrated, regional and inter-regional hazardous waste treatment facilities depending on the planning on managing solid waste that has been approved with the application of modern and advanced technologies; limit the growth and decrease the number of small-scale treatment facilities or unfocused treatment facilities posing a risk to the environment;

- Promote the construction of intensive treatment or recycling facilities of particular hazardous waste in combination with development of treatment facilities eligible to recycle and treat different hazardous waste; enhance the transfer of waste among waste treatment facilities for the purpose of exploiting the strengths of every facility during the processing;

- Control then end the treatment of waste at source by burning or burial.

- Prioritize the combined waste treatment as regulated by laws for the purpose of minimizing the disposal of waste by using dedicated waste incinerator.

- Reinforce the recycling and reusing of hazardous waste; with regard to hazardous waste that can be reused or recycled, control the license for waste treatment by burial or solid transformation;

- Foster the preparation and approval for the plan for collection, transport, storing, transshipment of hazardous waste in local authorities in consistent with local conditions and regulations of the law on environmental protection in pursuit of improving the collection and treatment of hazardous waste discharged in small volume or discharged from remote and isolated areas;

- Encourage clustered and concentrated treatment of hazardous medical waste; control unfocused waste treatment in hospitals; prioritize the treatment of infectious medical waste not by burning, especially treatment of infectious medical waste at source; limit the investment in construction and gradually decrease the number of infectious medical waste incinerator in district medical facilities.

b) With regard to daily-life solid waste:

- Summarize and assess the results of implementation of Decision No.582/QD-TTg dated April 11, 2013 of the Prime Minister on approving the plan for controlling environmental pollution due to the use of persistent plastic bags in daily life up to 2020; limit then end the import, export and provision of types of persistent plastic bags used in daily life since 2026 in trade centers and supermarkets;

- Develop private sector involvement model in collecting, transport, storing and treatment of daily-life solid waste discharged from rural areas; establish autonomous organizations in charge of waste collection that invest in the purchase of dedicated vehicles or carts for collecting garbage in pursuit of expand the range and increase the rate of collection.

- Decrease in number, reuse, recycle and treat solid waste in combination with energy recovery for the purpose of saving resources and preventing environmental pollution caused by the waste

- Prepare plans, effectively and step-by-step run the program for separating daily-life solid waste from where it is discharged depending on natural and socio-economic conditions as well as solid waste management capacity of the local authority;

- Select advanced and environmentally-friendly technologies suitable for the feature, nature of waste and characteristic of each local authority;

- Prioritize the construction of concentrated solid recycling and treatment facilities in regions or inter-regions depending on the planning on managing solid waste and ensure stable and effective management and operation

- Rehabilitate and improve landfills of daily-life solid waste failing to meet the hygiene requirement, polluted and degraded lands for satisfying the environmental protection requirement; thoroughly handle spontaneous landfills of daily-life waste and timely prevent the establishment of such landfills after 2025; 

- Mobilize all investment resources, promote private sector involvement in collecting, transport, recycling and treatment of daily-life solid waste, create an environment of fair competition among economic sectors and design a roadmap to charges of daily-life solid waste collection, transport and treatment services depending on socio-economic conditions of the local authority to assure the payment of collection and transport service charges for making up the treatment service charge, gradually reduce the subsidy from state budget to activities of collecting, transporting and treating solid waste; organize a pilot collection of daily-life solid waste collecting, transport and treatment service charges according to the volume of waste.

- Design a roadmap or plan and equitize state-owned enterprises providing daily-life solid waste management service;

- Provide guidelines for implementation of plans for investment, development, management and operation of solid waste treatment facilities as regulated by laws;

- Foster the setting of projects for investment in daily-life solid treatment in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) depending on socio-economic conditions of each local authority;

- Raise the public awareness and responsibility about the prevention, reduction, reusing, recycling and treatment of solid waste as well as leading an environmentally-friendly lifestyle

c) With regard to ordinarily industrial solid waste:

- Ordinarily industrial solid waste must be managed and controlled from the discharging stage to the stage of separating, collecting, storing, transport and treatment as regulated;

- Promote the reusing and recycling of ordinarily industrial solid waste; prioritize waste treatment in combination of recovering energy and minimizing the waste to be buried;

- Enhance the recycling and reusing of ash, slag and gypsum as materials for production, construction and land grading meeting the environmental protection requirement;

- Prioritize activities of combined treatment of ordinarily industrial solid waste in production facilities;

- Continue to launch the plan for more environmentally-friendly production in industrial production facilities for the purpose of preventing releasing solid waste into the environment.

d) With regard to other particular solid waste:

- Construction solid waste must be collected, recycled, reused and treated by appropriate technologies; enhance the research and application of construction solid waste recycling technologies;

- Waste discharged from activities in cattle and poultry farming must be collected, recycled and treated; predominantly concentrate on the production of compost and biogas;

- Solid waste discharged from agricultural practices must be collected, reused, recycled into environmentally-friendly materials, fuels and products.

- Increase the collecting and handling of chemical or pesticide packaging used in agriculture as required by laws;

- Boost the collecting and handling of sludge of septic tank meeting the environmental protection requirement; prioritize the application of organic fertilizer and energy recovery technologies meeting the environmental protection requirement.

5. Solutions for adjusting the Strategy

a) Finalizing the building of a legal document system and a policy on solid waste management:

- Finalize the research, amendments and preparation of legal documents of solid waste management in consistent with other relevant regulations of laws and socio-economic development of the country prior to 2020, concentrate on:

+ Formulating regulations and completing the formulation of an incentive policy on reduction, reusing and recycling of solid waste; promulgating an appropriate roadmap to the reduction of persistent plastic bag use towards the end of such use;

+ Completing the formulation of regulations providing guidelines for valuation of solid waste collection, transport and treatment services, strive to reach the goal of full payment for collection and transport service charges by 2025 and making up 50% of treatment service charge by 2050;

+ Amending and providing guidelines for incentive policies issued by the State on investments in construction of daily-life solid waste treatment facilities.

- Review and amend standards, national technical regulations, economic-technical restrictions regarding solid waste management, to be specific:

+ Promulgate standards, national technical regulations as well as economic-technical restrictions on recycling and treatment of construction solid waste and sludge of septic tank;

+ Amend and formulate new standards, national technical restrictions on construction of landfills as well as ordinary and hazardous solid waste treatment facilities;

+ Promulgate standards for means of storing, collecting and transport of daily-life solid waste

- Promulgate regulations on management of inter-provincial solid waste treatment facilities and mechanism for cooperation among relevant provinces

- Formulate regulations on management and use of recycled materials and products for each type of solid waste recycling.

- Provide guidance on conditions and procedures for enjoying privileges and assistance from environmental protection funds and other financial or credit institutions applied to plans for investment in collection, transport and construction of daily-life solid waste treatment facilities

b) Promote the scientific research, technology modernization and production of solid waste recycling and treatment equipments:

- Enhance the research and application of advanced technologies for recycling, reusing and treatment of solid waste; especially concentrate on the development of energy recovery or electricity generation from solid waste;

- Foster the performance of national or ministerial-level applied research and transfer of key technology or science regarding the general management of solid waste; concentrate on completing the development of domestic equipments and technological lines for the purpose of collecting, transporting and treating solid waste;

- Study and apply criteria or standards in selecting technologies, design, construct and operate solid waste treatment facilities;

- Conduct an advanced and applied research on daily-life solid waste collecting and transporting equipments for good-looking appearance and effective use assurance.

- Encourage organizations and individuals to participate in conducting a research on solid waste treatment technologies suitable for conditions of Vietnam

c) Reviewing and adjusting the planning on solid waste management:

- Review the implementation of the planning on managing solid waste in key economic sectors and river basins, the planning on solid waste management of local authorities, contents of the planning on solid waste included in the urban planning involving climate change in consistent with the objectives of adjustments to the Strategy;

- Review, adjust and prepare plans for investment and development of solid waste treatment facilities depending on the planning that has been approved; determine investment requirements, projects for prioritizing investments and missions in each period of the planning or plan of each local authority;

- Boost the inspection and supervision of implementation of plans for solid waste management that have been approved by competent authorities

d) Creating a local and central data system of solid waste, to be specific, designing software and provide training in figure collecting and reporting

dd) Developing human resources for adjusting the Strategy:

- Provide management capacity building training for officials participating in the management of solid waste and environment in central to local entities;

- Reinforce and expand vocational training facilities or centers, improve the quality of skilled staff training serving the management, operation and maintenance of solid waste treatment facilities

e) Promoting propaganda and education for awareness building:

- Develop and run media programs for raising public awareness in schools, community, regulatory agencies, production or service facilities about reduction, separating at source, recycling, reusing or disposal of solid waste in prescribed places;

- Design an educational environment program with contents and time suitable for the awareness of children in each general education level;

- Include contents of solid waste management consisting of prevention, reduction of solid waste, use of environmentally-friendly materials, collection and transport of solid waste as regulated in the training program for officials at agencies, production, trading or service facilities.

g) Strengthening communication and cooperation with countries, international institutions, non-governmental organizations in capacity building training, know-how acquiring, technical assistance, technology transfer and financial assistance regarding solid waste management.

6. Financial resources

a) Local budget; subsidy from state budget; loan capital from credit institutions, Vietnam Environment Protection Fund, local environment protection funds, or PPP and other legal financial sources ensuring the achievement of objectives in adjustments to the Strategy in accordance with regulations of laws;

b) Funding from owners of discharging facilities and relevant subjects as regulated

Article 2. Adjustments to the Strategy

1. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall take responsibility to:

a) preside over the review, evaluation, inspection and supervision of strategy adjustment; periodically assess and learn from adjustments to the Strategy then send to the Prime Minister every year and every five years;

b) amend, formulate and promulgate legislative documents, national technical regulations, and environmental protection regulations regarding solid waste management, as authorized;

c) preside over and provide guidelines for separating waste at source depending on with natural and socio-economic conditions, engineering infrastructure serving the waste collection, transport and treatment of local authorities;

d) license for hazardous waste treatment of hazardous waste treatment facilities in compliance with the orientation of adjustments to the strategy relating to hazardous waste, especially recycling and treatment technologies and collecting, transporting areas;

dd) promulgate or submit mechanisms, policies and technical guidance on rehabilitating and reforming the environment of solid waste landfills causing severely environmental pollution and procedures for closing such landfills after the rehabilitation and reform to competent authorities to be promulgated;

e) create and manage a data system of solid waste management nationwide;

g) inspect and impose penalties on organizations and individuals for breaching the law on environmental protection in solid waste management;

h) launch the propaganda and educational programs for raising public awareness about environmental protection in particular and solid waste management in general.

2. The Ministry of Construction shall take responsibility to:

a) review, promulgate or move an amendment to legislative documents, national technical regulations, economic-technical restrictions on planning, investing in construction and managing solid waste as authorized;

b) review, assess the performance of the planning on solid waste management approved by the Prime Minister; instruct local authorities to review, adjust the planning on solid waste management, solid waste management planning included in the urban planning involving the climate change in consistent with objectives, missions and methods of adjustments to the strategy;

c) provide guidelines for preparing, inspecting and approving projects for investments in construction of solid waste treatment facilities in the forms that comply with regulations of the law on construction, supervision, and inspection of project implementation

d) provide guidelines for, urge and inspect the development of a roadmap to charges of daily-life solid waste collection, transport and treatment services;

dd) Summarize, assess and inspect the accomplishment of missions and objectives specified in the strategy and according to functions or missions as assigned

3. The Ministry of Science and Technology shall:

a) launch a national plan, project for scientific research on solid waste treatment technologies, provide guidelines for applying appropriate solid waste treatment technologies;

b) foster the study or transfer of solid waste treatment technologies that are environmentally-friendly, waste generated from agriculture, agricultural by-products;

c) preside over and cooperate with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Industry and Trade, Agriculture and Rural Development in conducting a research on advancing solid waste recycling technologies in trade villages.

4. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall promulgate detailed technical guidance on collecting and storing waste discharged from agriculture; boost the inspection, supervision and provide guidelines for the collection, transport and storing of packaging of chemical pesticides, fertilizers or veterinary drugs in agricultural practices.

5. The Ministry of Planning and Investment and Finance shall take responsibility to provide guidelines for, balance and allocate capital of state budget and other sources to carry out the missions specified in adjustments to the strategy.

6. Ministries and departments shall prepare and launch relevant plans approved in the adjustments to the strategy according to functions and missions assigned by the Government.

7. People’s Committee of provinces and centrally-affiliated cities shall:

a) prepare and promulgate the plan for adjusting the strategy in consistent with natural and socio-economic conditions of the local authority;

b) review and adjust the planning on solid waste management, solid waste management planning included in the urban planning in the area in compliance with adjustments to the strategy; prepare and launch the plan for developing solid waste treatment facilities depending on the approved planning;

c) be active to seek and mobilize economic sectors to participate in investments in local daily-life solid waste separating, collection, transport and treatment; impose and promulgate charges on daily-life solid waste collection, transport and treatment services; ensure the consistency in employing methods for treating solid waste in rural settlement;

d) preside over, provide guidelines for separating solid waste at source in the areas under management depending on conditions of the local authority;

dd) allocate a portion of annual state funding for environmental protection of the local authority to provide assistance in treating daily-life solid waste, rehabilitating closed landfills and handling spontaneous landfills; develop solid waste treatment models suitable for features of each local authority;

e) preside over, equitize state-owned enterprises providing daily-life solid waste management service

g) inspect and take action against violations in solid waste management as authorized;

h) set up propaganda for the building of capacity, awareness and responsibility of agencies and individuals regarding general management of solid waste and environmental protection in the area;

i) send reports of the progress of accomplishment of missions and objectives specified in the adjustments to the strategy in provinces or cities to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Construction and relevant ministries every year and every five years.

Article 3. Effect

1. This Decision comes into force from the day on which it is signed and replaces Decision No.2149/QD-TTg dated December 17, 2009 of the Prime Minister on approving national strategy for general management of solid waste to 2025 with vision towards 2050.

2. Ministers, Directors of ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, Chairperson of People’s Committee of provinces and centrally-affiliated cities, relevant organizations and individuals shall take responsibility to implement this Decision./