Department Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development

Amplifying Waste Recovery Solutions – Towards a Circular Society (AWARE)

Project Timeline: March 2022 to February 2025

 

Vietnam is estimated to have the fourth highest rate of mismanaged plastic waste worldwide with 0.28-0.73 metric tons per year of plastic leaked into the marine environment. Urgent action is needed to address the issue as, with rapid economic growth; waste generation increases rapidly but the waste management capacity lags behind. This contributes to an increased mismanagement and leakage of waste into the environment. Tsai, F.M., Bui, T.-D., Tseng, M.-L., Lim, M.K., Tan, R.R. (2020). Sustainable solid-waste management in coastal and marine tourism cities in Viet Nam: A hierarchical-level approach. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105266.

This applied research project aims to improve the situation of waste management, especially focusing on plastics management and strengthening circular economy. The project:

  • Provides scientific evidence of the current situation and deficiencies to best identify hotspots for strategic intervention.
  • Develops innovative solutions to amplify waste recovery and recycling solutions centred on the principles of a circular economy.

The scientific advances for implementation of such circular solutions, especially for lower- and middle-income contexts such as in Vietnam, is yet lacking on different levels:

a. Methodological – on how to assess plastic sinks and pollution for a city or watershed;

b. Socio-psychological – on how to enhance participation and behaviour change towards more
    circular waste management practices;

c. Technical – regarding appropriate technologies for recycling of mixed plastic fractions.

 

Research package 1: Plastic Flows and Leakages

Develop and validate science-based monitoring methods and tools for the assessment of plastic pollution at watershed scale.

 

Research package 2: Behaviour change for household waste segregation

Provide tools and test solutions to enhance behaviour change of waste generators to segregate the waste at source.

 

Research package 3: Value chain analysis and decision support on plastic recycling

Develop and validate a decision support tool for participatory decision-making in the choice of plastic recycling options towards circular economic concepts.

 

 

Publications

Tosi Robinson, D.; Zurbrügg, C.; Nguyen, T. H. T. (2025). Applying the Waste Flow Diagram Regionally. Technical Brief. Eawag-Sandec

Regional land-based plastic leakage into the aquatic environment – Waste Flow Diagram applied to the Phu Yen province, Vietnam

Land-based plastic waste is the primary source of ocean plastic pollution, but data regarding its origins and pathways remain limited. This study adapted the Waste Flow Diagram (WFD) tool, initially developed for city-level plastic leakage assessment, for regional application in Phu Yen province, Vietnam. This adaptation aims to capture plastic leakage dynamics across a broader spatial scale to account for all significant sources contributing to ocean plastic pollution. The results show that, excluding Tuy Hoa City, Phu Yen contributes 9.4 kg per capita per year to aquatic environments. Most leakage (88.6 %) originated from uncollected waste in areas lacking collection services. Additional leakage arises from waste collection and transport (7.9 %), disposal sites (2.8 %), and informal activities (0.6 %). Leakage varies widely across districts, ranging from 1 to 55.7 kg/cap/year. The findings offer valuable insights for targeted interventions and policies aimed to enhance waste collection coverage and mitigate regional marine plastic pollution.
Tosi Robinson, D.; Le, T. T.; Ngo, H. T. T.; Hoang, T. H. T.; Zurbrügg, C.; Nguyen, T. H. T. (2025) Regional land-based plastic leakage into the aquatic environment – Waste Flow Diagram applied to the Phu Yen province, Vietnam, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 217, 118058 (10 pp.), doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.118058, Institutional Repository

Land-based plastic leakage into the aquatic environment from municipal solid waste – Waste flow diagram applied to Tuy Hoa City, Phu Yen, Vietnam

Plastic mismanagement and its subsequent pollution by rapid economic development and urbanisation pose significant challenges for modern world society. Notwithstanding one of the main sources for macro plastic leakage into the ocean from land, precise assessment of plastic pollution origins from Southeast Asia is yet to be clearly examined. In order to make informed decisions and prioritise areas of improvement it is required to better understand the waste leakage dynamics at the local level. In this work, the Waste Flow Diagram (WFD) was applied to understand the sources and fates of plastics leaking from the solid waste management system for the case of Tuy Hoa City, Phu Yen, Vietnam. The study shows scenarios of leakage into the aquatic environment ranging from 0.8 to 2.7 kg/cap/year, which originates mainly from the collection system. Targeted improvements to this stage of the service could reduce leakages and the overall environmental impacts of mismanaged plastic waste. The results of this study show the necessity and importance of having up to date and reliable data to better inform stakeholders and service planning, facilitating efficient action against plastic pollution. As the first peer-reviewed scientific article critically applying the WFD, this work highlights the steps and challenges of the methodology and critically analyses different methodological pathways.
Tosi Robinson, D.; Thao Vu, P.; Le, T. T.; Thi Hoang, T. H.; Viet Ly, Q.; Thi Thuy Ngo, H.; Zurbrügg, C.; Hanh Tien Nguyen, T. (2024) Land-based plastic leakage into the aquatic environment from municipal solid waste – Waste flow diagram applied to Tuy Hoa City, Phu Yen, Vietnam, Waste Management, 186, 226-235, doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2024.06.014, Institutional Repository