Behaviours of the Community Regarding Classification of Domestic Solid Waste at Source in Hanoi City

Abstract

Classification of domestic solid waste (DSW) at source is essential in the processing of DSW treatment towards reduce, reuse, and recycle. The support and participation of the communities have important role in the success of this process. This study was performed to investigate behaviours of the communities for classifying DSW at source in Hanoi City. The social survey comprised of 300 questionnaire sheets, investigating, interviewing and literature reviewing was conducted toward achieving the study's purposes. The results show that Hanoi City generates about 5,000 tons of DSW daily but DSW classifying at source has not been adequately done yet. However, 100% of interviewees in the studied area have usually classified DSW at source mainly to sell to metal scrap collectors. For plastic and paper wastes, segregation rate at source in rural areas (97.3% and 93.2%, respectively) is higher than in urban areas (55.3 % and 67.8%, respectively). Even for biodegradable and recyclable solid wastes (such as compost and glass), people hardly segregate at source and mostly discard them. The rate of discarding food and leftovers in the urban is 87.3%, while the discarding glass rates in rural areas and urban are 64.4% and 87.5%, respectively. The percentage of reusing and trading solid wastes in rural areas is always higher than that in the urban. The investigation also indicates that the proportion of people supporting solid waste segregation at source is very high (86.7% in rural areas and 88.7% in the inner city). Solutions to better participation and involvement of the communities in solid waste classification at source in the upcoming years have been proposed.