Hanoi has approved spending more than 107 trillion VND (5.1 billionUSD) on collecting, classifying and properly treating solid waste in abid to reduce environmental pollution and make the capital city greenerby 2030.

Under the new plan, domestic solid waste in thecity will be collected and recycled down to organic fertilizer, or burntand dumped at landfills in three suburban zones. Waste will be treatedin 17 areas spread across the city.

The city will also build 29dumping sites for construction and mud waste. Money will be assigned tothe projects from the State budget, official development assistancefunds and build-operate-transfer loans.

A report on theenvironment in Vietnam from the Ministry of Natural Resources andEnvironment released last August showed that solid waste in urban,industrial and economic areas has increased on average 10 percentannually. Of this amount, 46 percent is from urban areas, 17 percentfrom industrial production and the rest from rural areas and traditionalcraft villages.

Currently, on average, each city in thecountry has one dumping site for all kinds of waste. Hanoi andHCM City have four and five respectively.

However, only 16 of the country’s 98 dumping sites follow standard procedures for burying waste.

In Hanoi , around 5,000 tonnes of solid waste is discharged everyday. There are three solid waste incinerators in the city with acapacity of destroying 120-200 kilos per hour.-VNA