Vietstar JSC is hastily pushing to increase the waste-to-energy plant’s recycling and combustion capacity to 6,000 tons a day with a total investment of about US$400 million. The plan proposed includes improving the waste sorting and recycling system, as well as developing an enclosed odor-free disposal system and incinerators to handle non-recyclable waste.
Since 2003-2004, the city has aimed to nationalize waste treatment and called for investments of projects with advanced technologies to ensure environmental quality, said Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong. One appropriate method of waste treatment at the time was establishing sanitary landfills with proper leachate treatment.
However, municipal solid waste is increasing rapidly by about 10% per year. Therefore, city officials have required existing domestic solid waste treatment plants to quickly switch to waste-to-energy technology to ensure less than 20% of waste end up in landfills by 2025.
Mr. Phong stressed that the construction of a waste incineration plant marked an important milestone in modernizing waste treatment in HCMC as well as providing energy, contributing to the early completion of goals in the Breakthrough Program to reduce environmental pollution in the city.
At the same time, he requested Vietstar JSC and the entrusted existing waste treatment companies to complete projects on schedule and ensure high-quality and safe operation.
He also promised that the city would continue to provide full cooperation in implementing the project and the most favorable conditions for its success.
Speaking at the ceremony, Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong said that Vietstar unicipal solid waste facility, which has been in operation since 2010, was one of the three existing waste treatment plants pioneering in the transformation into waste incineration plants under HCMC’s policy. According to General Director Ngo Nhu Hung Viet, the facility has a total area of 30ha. Its factories handle 2,000 tons of garbage per day, producing 7,500 tons of organic fertilizer and 300 tons of PE plastic a month.
