CULTURAL
Ho Chi Minh city and Vietnam in general is having serious issues with waste management. One of the reasons that caused the issue to happen is that people haven’t had serious attitude towards environmental problems and their own health (Nguyen 2019). Trash bins throughout the city are mostly the single bin type where all kinds of trash goes in. Although recycle bins have appeared more and more lately on the streets, people tends to put the wrong type of garbage into the wrong bin because most people think that it is the waste collectors job. As landfills in Ho Chi Minh city haven’t invested in building a sorting facility, most garbage are buried. However, comparing to Thailand, where they have the similar issue with garbage, people seems to have better attitude towards the issue (McIntyre 2017). In Thailand, people are encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. People also classify wastes into organic, recyclables, hazardous waste from resident waste in order to reduce the amount of trash going to the landfills (ibid). Ignorance is still a problem in dealing with waste in Vietnam. Therefore, raising citizens’ awareness is the most important thing to do in order to solve the issue.
ECONOMICAL
Waste management (smart waste management) is an emerging topic that has been attracting interests of the public and private entities. In Denmark, an interview was conducted with the companies working in waste collection managements, cities and private citizens in order to understand the needs and challenges of these stakeholders (Lundin, Ozkil, Jensen & Jakob 2017). All stakeholders said that waste collecting from public bins is extremely costly and an increasingly complicated problem. In Copenhagen, the budget for waste collecting from public bins in 4 years is 100 million 4KK = 15 million dollars (Lundin, Ozkil, Jensen & Jakob 2017). At least 50 000 dollars has been invested every year to hire people physically count and record trash amount. There are many concerns among the stakeholders towards the smart waste solution. As there has been a large number of bins already, the high price of a new smart bin discourages them (ibid). Moreover, it is more simpler to fund for a waste collector since doing such thing can create more job opportunities, rather than implement of advanced system.
Environmental issues, specifically in this case is landfill odors, can have serious impact on the economy of one’s country. Relating the “emotional lens”, it has been shown that low air quality can result negatively in worker’s health and productivity. Therefore can decrease production speed of the business leading to losses in the economy.
SOCIAL
Landfill gas and odors, air pollution in general has been a problem in our society, having numerous citizens exposed to severe health issues, diseases and even death. Children and elderly people’s health is more easy to be affected by this terrible plague. All of this were caused by the wrong way of managing waste. According to statistic from Urban Environmental Company Ltd in 2019, Ho Chi Minh city collect 1800 tons of plastic waste everyday (Thu Hong 2019). However, only 11% is going to recycling plants, the rest goes to landfill where they are buried. Based on surveys, different people with different types of accommodation have various ways of collecting waste (Thu Hong 2019). For instance, there are people who lives in their own house, apartment or rent rooms, with different ways of keeping the trash. From survey, many people have awareness of separating recyclable with non-recyclable waste. However, from observation, when collecting the waste into trucks, all kinds of trash goes into the same trucks (from author’s own observation). As a result, even when people have efforts to separate waste, the result is still the same.
EMOTIONAL
Low air quality, especially landfill gas can have crucial impacts on people’s health and well being. Studies conducted in areas near landfills showed health complaints coincides with elevated periods of hydrogen sulfide and landfill odors. Landfill gas is caused by elevating level of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide and pollution areas were found to have higher level of sulfur dioxide than non polluted places. People who lives near the landfill and exposed to landfill gases can have serious health issues. Landfill odors is speculated to be able to affect people’s neurocognitive function, leading to sleeping difficulties or constant headaches. People can also have serious respiratory problems with symptoms such as coughing, irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and leading to more severe problem as aggravated asthma.
ETHICAL
Not only does landfill odor negatively affect health and well being of the civilians, it also has impact on moral ethics. People who live in area with more serious issue of pollution can have more unethical behaviors such as crime or cheating. Living in areas with pollution is proved to cause anxiety, which is also known to possibly correlate with unethical behaviors (Gardiner, Thompson & Elliott 2017). According to research of Jackson Lu of MIT, pollution, or thoughts of pollution specifically can have effects on our behavior (Lu 2018). Experiments in the United States and India have found the connection between pollution, anxiety and unethical behavior. Test subjects were not interacted with pollution areas directly as this is unethical, but to be shown photos of polluted and clean city scenes. Then they were asked to describe how they would feel if they are exposed to such environment (ibid). As a result, subjects who were shown polluted photos were more likely to express anxiety and cheat on the tasks. Jackson Lu stated that low air quality can leads to higher crime rates, from picking pockets to murder, rape and robbery (Lu 2018). Therefore, it has been proved that unethical behaviors have correlation with air quality.
POLITICAL
The Government of Vietnam, especially the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam has many policies and regulations of improving the environment and raising civilians’ awareness towards the problem (Trung Tuyen 2016). However, these policies do not have any effective results as the government lack of political dedication (ibid). As an example, in 2006, Da Phuoc landfill was originally designed by VWS (Vietnam Waste Solutions) with 3 plants which were classification of recyclables, hygienic composting plant and sanitary landfill, in order to reduce the amount of burial of garbage (Cao Hung 2018). However, the former two plants has never been in construction until now despite complaints from people in nearby residents and medias (Cao Hung 2018).
TECHNOLOGICAL
In these modern days, technology can be applied into every daily task. In order to deal with waste managing problems, many environmental companies and organizations have developed numerous type of groundbreaking smart waste management technology (Cifani 2018). Not only can these advanced systems helps tracking when the trash bins are ready to be collected, self-sort different type of garbage but also helps cut costs long term (ibid).
FUNCTIONAL
Talking about functional, the smart waste management system must be mentioned again. Technology nowadays can do amazing things and even waste management is not a problem (Cifani 2018). Various brands of smart trash bins are brought up to the market with different functions such as self-sorting, compressing garbage and automatically report when it is time to collect the trash (Cifani 2018). However, it could be improved in educational value. Raising people’s awareness towards the waste pollution and recycling materials is crucial in Ho Chi Minh city since people generally assume waste will be collected and classified at the landfill. Smart trash bins have done all the work of separating types of trash itself, therefore people do not have to consider between which bins to put the material into. This could result in the lack of awareness of the people.
ENVIRONMENTAL
Improper waste management can play a dramatic role in causing global warming and affecting all environment element such as air, water and soil contamination.
Vietnam has hot and humid tropical climate, which is a favorable condition for organic components in decomposing waste. The climate contributes in accelerating the rotting, fermentation of waste creating unpleasant odors and emit gases from the processes (VN Green Environment Joint Stock Company).
Waste being dumped at river banks, lakes and drainage systems. The decomposition of garbage can directly affect the water of the area and spread to others (VN Green Environment Joint Stock Company). Because of the large amount of garbage, it will block drains and reduce water’s ability to clean itself, leading to destruction of ecosystems underwater (ibid).
Toxins from decomposition if not treated scientifically can cause harm to the soil and destroy useful organisms such as worms, micro-organisms, invertebrates and amphibians, reducing the biodiversity and increase pests (VN Green Environment Joint Stock Company). Furthermore, plastic waste can strongly block the process of decomposing nutrients. As a result, soil can reduce its fertility, acidity and crop productivity will decline.
EDUCATION
Currently, in order to improve the issue of environmental pollution, science and technology have contributed greatly to help reducing daily waste (Teksoz 2011). Nonetheless, the problem of waste management does not simply lies on the government’s responsibility but also the people’s awareness (Nguyen 2019). Vietnamese people lack of serious attitude towards the problem because most people still think that their action is too small to cause harm to the environment (Moitruongdeal 2017). Moreover, the thought that it is the government and waste collector’s job to keep the street clean. These thoughts seem harmless, however, they have significant effects on the thinking of other people, especially of the younger generations (ibid). The destruction of one’s environment is only minor, but it could eventually become a serious problem if many people are gathered. Therefore, it is important for people to acknowledge their wrong action and raise their awareness.
INDUSTRY
Environmental pollution, especially waste pollution is now an increasingly alarming problem that concern many people. To solve the issue, many industries have shifted into “green industry”. This means that different industries now produces environmental-friendly products and designs in order to help better the natural conditions of the environment and minimize the negative impacts (PhD Do Huu Hao 2012). The process involves reusing waste, efficient use of energy and natural resources by using advanced technologies and recyclables materials. In Hải Phòng, Vietnam, DEEP C Industrial Complex is constructing a road using plastic wastes, aiming to recycle used plastic into a stable and sustainable road material (Moitruong24h 2019). The 1 kilometer road will use 4 tons of plastic waste and is expected to be completed in September 2019 (Moitruong24h 2019).
REFERENCE
Cao Hung 2018, ‘Vụ bãi rác Đa Phước: Vì một chữ “nếu” nên 8 năm qua, VWS chỉ mang rác để… chôn’, Lao Động.vn, viewed on 30 June 2019, available at: https://laodong.vn/moi-truong/vu-bai-rac-da-phuoc-vi-mot-chu-neu-nen-8-nam-qua-vws-chi-mang-rac-de-chon-617340.ldo
Cifani, S 2018,’The 6 most innovative waste technology systems’, Dumpster.com Blog, viewed on 1 July 2019, available at: https://www.dumpsters.com/blog/smart-waste-management-technology
Do, HH 2012, ‘Phát triển công nghiệp xanh là giải pháp tích cực ứng phó với biến đổi khí hậu và nước biển dâng’, vea.gov.vn, viewed on 1 July 2019, available at: http://www.vea.gov.vn/vn/truyenthong/tapchimt/gpcnx42009/Pages/Ph%C3%A1t-tri%E1%BB%83n-c%C3%B4ng-nghi%E1%BB%87p-xanh-l%C3%A0-gi%E1%BA%A3i-ph%C3%A1p-t%C3%ADch-c%E1%BB%B1c-%E1%BB%A9ng-ph%C3%B3-v%E1%BB%9Bi-bi%E1%BA%BFn-%C4%91%E1%BB%95i-kh%C3%AD-h%E1%BA%ADu-v%C3%A0-n%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Bc-bi%E1%BB%83n-d%C3%A2ng.aspx
Gardiner, S Thompson, A Elliott, K 2017, ‘The Ethics of Environmental Pollution’, The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics, Oxford University Press.
Lu, J 2018, ‘Polluted Air May Pollute Our Morality’, Association for Psychological Science, viewed on 1 July 2019, available at: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/polluted-air-may-pollute-our-morality.html
Lundin, C Ozkil, A Ozkil, G Jensen, A Jensen, S Jakob 2017,’Smart Cities: A Case Study in Waste Monitoring and Management’.
McIntyre, A 2017, ‘Waste Management in Asia: 1 goal, 5 cities, 5 lessons’, Asian Developmet Blog, viewed on 30 June 2019, available at: https://blogs.adb.org/blog/waste-management-asia-1-goal-5-cities-5-lessons
Moitruong24h 2019, ‘Lần đầu tiên Việt Nam làm đường từ rác thải nhựa’, Moitruong24h.vn, viewed on 2 July 2019, available at: http://moitruong24h.vn/lan-dau-tien-viet-nam-lam-duong-tu-rac-thai-nhua.html
Moitruongdeal 2017, ‘Thực trạng ô nhiễm môi trường ở Việt Nam và các giải pháp khắc phục’, Moitruongdeal.vn, viewed on 1 July 2019, available at: http://moitruongdeal.vn/thuc-trang-o-nhiem-moi-truong-o-viet-nam-va-cac-giai-phap-khac-phuc-news18-8.html
Teksoz, GT 2011, ‘Managing Air Pollution: How Does Education Help?’, in M.Khallaf (ed.), The impact of air pollution on health, economy, environment and agricultural sources, INTECH, viewed on 1 July 2019, available at: https://www.intechopen.com/books/the-impact-of-air-pollution-on-health-economy-environment-and-agricultural-sources/managing-air-pollution-how-does-education-help-
Thu Hong 2019, ‘Kinh hoàng rác thải nhựa’, Người lao động, viewed on 30 June 2019, available at: https://nld.com.vn/ban-doc/kinh-hoang-rac-thai-nhua-20190611231832626.htm
Trung Tuyen 2016, ‘Giải pháp cho công tác bảo vệ môi trường’, Nhân Dân Điện Tử, viewed on 1 July 2019, available at: https://www.nhandan.com.vn/khoahoc/item/31517602-giai-phap-cho-cong-tac-bao-ve-moi-truong.html
VN Green Environment Joint Stock Company,’Ảnh hưởng và tác hại của chất thải nguy hại’, moitruongxanh.vn, viewed on 1 July 2019, available at: https://moitruongxanhvn.com/anh-huong-va-tac-hai-cua-chat-thai-nguy-hai/
Kyou's Blog 