Lam Van Quyet lives three kilometres from the Tay Bac waste facility in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, however he is aware of precisely what time the rubbish vans arrive there.
“By 3pm, the horrible stench hits us,” he says. The towering 20-metre-high waste pile receives over 3,000 tonnes of garbage every day – virtually one-third of town’s whole. Closing the doorways of their house in Cu Chi district usually isn’t sufficient for Quyet and his household, and so they eat with the rotting odor lingering till 8 pm.
They’re amongst tons of of households struggling air air pollution inside a 10-kilometre radius of the 700-hectare landfill, the biggest dump in Vietnam’s largest metropolis. Close by farms lie deserted, crops wither, streams run black with leachate, and the groundwater is just too foul to make use of. Regardless of complaints, little has modified.
“They are saying they’ll cowl it higher, however nothing ever improves,” Quyet provides.
There are makes an attempt to finish this two-decade-long nightmare. In July, building started on town’s first waste-to-energy (WtE) incineration plant throughout the Tay Bac facility. The Tam Sinh Nghia challenge guarantees to burn garbage and generate an preliminary 365 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) a yr, earlier than reaching as much as 1,216 gigawatt-hours (GWh) – sufficient to energy 100,000 after which 338,000 properties yearly.
It’s a part of Vietnam’s wider plan to remodel ageing landfills into fashionable WtE energy vegetation. Whereas this can deal with the city waste disaster and cut back the environmental influence of dumpsites, incinerating waste brings its personal severe air pollution issues, making WtE a controversial answer.
Vietnam’s city trash disaster
With almost 100 million folks and speedy urbanisation, Vietnam generates round 68,000 tonnes of stable waste on daily basis, 60 per cent of which comes from city areas. That is anticipated to swell by 16 per cent by 2025, straining the nation’s 1,200 dumps, the place about two-thirds of waste finally ends up.
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The present incineration methodology burns every thing, together with alternatives for a round economic system.
Hoang Thanh Vinh, researcher, UN Growth Programme Vietnam
Main landfills in massive cities, akin to Hanoi’s Nam Son and Xuan Son, are already bursting on the seams. Since 2021, they’ve confronted repeated closures as a result of danger of containment embankments failing throughout downpours. In Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, Da Phuoc landfill, which exceeds its capability by 4 million tonnes, would possibly quickly face an analogous destiny.
Vietnam’s waste sector emits 21 million tonnes of CO2 equal (CO2e) yearly, accounting for round 6.5 per cent of the nation’s whole emissions. Methane emissions from landfills contribute a good portion, at 18 million tonnes of CO2e.
The federal government sees fashionable thermal WtE vegetation as the answer.
WtE for a mountain of waste
WtE incineration entails burning waste – ideally non-recyclable – to generate electrical energy. Trendy incinerators can cut back waste quantity by 90 per cent whereas harnessing electrical energy and mitigating methane emissions from landfills.
“Lately, the development in creating [WtE] vegetation has picked up in Vietnam, with provinces and cities calling for extra funding,” says Hoang Thanh Vinh, an knowledgeable in chemical compounds, waste, round economic system and ocean on the UN Growth Programme Vietnam.
Vietnam wants new sources of electrical energy technology. The booming economic system, speedy urbanisation, and growing electrification of rural areas have despatched vitality consumption hovering by 13 per cent yearly during the last twenty years. The federal government goals to double the nation’s energy technology capability by 2030 to 150 gigawatts (GW) and needs renewables to make up 21-39 per cent of electrical energy manufacturing, together with WtE.
That mentioned, official authorities figures state the potential for vitality restoration from stable waste is a modest 1,800 megawatts (MW), and the first purpose of WtE initiatives is to deal with the rising environmental disaster relatively than create extra energy.
Change of method
The push for WtE represents a U-turn for Vietnam. WtE proposals have been rejected till 2018 resulting from issues in regards to the know-how’s suitability, affordability, and environmental impacts.
“Family trash in Vietnam – largely unsorted – is the primary impediment,” says Nguyen Xuan Quang, an knowledgeable in thermal vitality from Hanoi College of Science and Expertise.
With over 60 per cent natural content material (meals and backyard waste) and excessive moisture ranges – particularly in the course of the wet season – Vietnam’s trash wants as much as seven days in a bunker to dry, and extra diesel gas should be injected into the furnace, growing operational prices.
So what triggered the change of place? It is perhaps the nation’s first-ever WtE plant in Can Tho. Funded by the Asian Growth Financial institution, the plant makes use of grate furnaces that are perfect for the moist, unsorted waste, to devour 400 tonnes of trash a day – 70 per cent of the Mekong Delta metropolis’s every day waste. The plant additionally churns out 150,000 kWh of electrical energy every day, although that doesn’t go far in a metropolis that consumes 12 million kWh a day.
Specialists consider its success led to the nation’s largest plant, Soc Son in Hanoi, which launched in 2022. It handles 70 per cent of Hanoi’s waste – 4,500 tonnes every day – and produces 40 million kWh a month.
Vietnam has three WtE vegetation up and working, with 15 extra below building, with assist from each home and worldwide traders.
The federal government is encouraging extra WtE investments by providing mills a preferential value of US$10.05 cents per kWh for electrical energy produced. The common for all sources is US$7 cents per kWh.
Neighbouring nations Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines are additionally embracing the know-how, impressed by China’s speedy WtE growth. By 2022, China led the world with over 900 WtE vegetation and traders from China dominate Vietnam’s WtE panorama.
“To Vietnam, China shares similarities in coping with city waste and its ‘messy’ content material,” says Quang. “The know-how they developed devours every thing, making it good for our unsorted trash.”
The pitfalls
At the moment, 13 per cent of Vietnam’s waste is burned in 500 small, conventional incinerators, which in 2016 contributed 2.6 per cent of total waste emissions. However their emissions are additionally one of many largest sources of dioxins for the reason that Vietnam Struggle. Dioxins are extremely poisonous, doubtlessly inflicting reproductive points, immune system harm, hormonal disruption, and most cancers.
Supporters of WtE say fashionable services are cleaner and higher at controlling air pollution. Nevertheless, lax rules on the brand new know-how in Thailand and Indonesia have triggered well being issues for Vietnam. Critics level to the area’s weak air pollution management measures and inadequate monitoring of dioxins and different poisonous chemical compounds.
“Whether or not it’s a appropriate answer for Vietnam at this level stays an enormous query,” says Vinh. For cities which might be quick on land, WtE affords a fast repair, Vinh provides, however the place land is accessible and oversight is weak, these vegetation warrant reconsideration.
These issues are already taking part in out. Earlier this yr, native authorities in Can Tho reported struggles managing 14,000 tonnes of hazardous fly ash launched from the nation’s pioneering WtE plant. The by-product, containing dioxins and heavy metals that must be fastidiously managed, has been piling up in sacks and left within the open on the advanced. The problem persists resulting from a stand-off between producers and authorities, in addition to excessive therapy prices.
This poisonous emission management stays a problem, says Quang. Monitoring dioxins and furans – extremely poisonous chemical compounds launched by burning waste – is pricey. Testing alone can price over US$900 per pattern, and a number of samples and common testing are wanted to make sure security.
“So environmental safety measurements in these WtE vegetation usually imply measuring frequent pollution, not dioxins or furans, as a result of excessive prices and restricted sources,” Quang says.
Attracting funding has been difficult, as most funds are required upfront for tools, whereas returns might take 10 to twenty years. To encourage funding, a examine really useful that the federal government double the value it pays for vitality. As an alternative, the federal government proposed shifting to individually negotiated charges with the state-run Electrical energy of Vietnam (EVN), which reportedly provides additional uncertainty for traders already deterred by advanced approval processes.
An array of multi-million-dollar initiatives in Hau Giang, Thanh Hoa, Dong Nai, Phu Tho, and Ninh Binh stay delayed for years resulting from paperwork hurdles, elevated prices and funding shortages.
Finally, these prices will likely be placed on the taxpayers, Vinh says. “The know-how is pricey, and lots of provinces are [only] trying on the rosy tip of WtE’s iceberg.”
Waste options
The World Alliance for Incinerator Options (GAIA) tells Dialogue Earth that incinerating waste emits extra carbon than coal. Together with WtE in local weather plans might subsequently undermine Vietnam’s greenhouse fuel discount efforts, GAIA says.
The nation’s dependence on worldwide financing for emissions reductions additionally dangers public well being and monetary burdens if funds are funnelled into incineration relatively than sustainable strategies like recycling, the group provides.
GAIA calls WtE a “false answer”, nonetheless requiring landfills for poisonous ash. As an alternative, it suggests composting, in addition to merely lowering waste and recycling extra, with correct supply separation that might lower methane emissions whereas supporting inexperienced jobs.
“These measures are price prioritising over-investing in costly infrastructure and getting locked in future dangers,” Vinh says. “The present incineration methodology burns every thing, together with alternatives for a round economic system.”
A future on hearth
The growth of WtE displays Vietnam’s age-old battle with waste administration and its lack of a transparent, actionable plan.
The Nationwide Environmental Safety Technique stays targeted on lowering landfill use from 70 per cent to 30 per cent by subsequent yr, regardless of solely a 6 per cent discount from 2019 to 2023. The technique additionally incorporates recycling, waste discount, sorting, and vitality restoration applied sciences. Nevertheless, consultants warning that these strategies might battle with each other.
China’s WtE increase serves as a cautionary story. Its push for elevated waste sorting and recycling has left cities quick on incinerator gas.
Bamboo Capital, the corporate behind the one greenlit WtE challenge in Cu Chi, didn’t reply to Dialogue Earth’s questions on the way it will deal with pollution like furans and dioxins.
The landfill it sits on continues polluting the world, whereas a promised tree buffer to defend the residents nonetheless hasn’t emerged 17 years on.
Many locals haven’t even heard in regards to the new plant.
“It’d launch some toxins, however I’m not apprehensive but,” says one man. “Simply one other stench to close the doorways to.”
This text was initially printed on Dialogue Earth below a Artistic Commons licence.
