Situation, Challenges, and Solutions of Policy Implementation on Municipal Waste Management in Vietnam toward Sustainability

Municipal solid waste management is an environmental issue that has received considerable attention from researchers and environmental managers for decades. Supporting the management programs entail policies and regulations related to municipal solid waste. In developed countries, the implementation of environmental policies plays an important role and has a substantial impact on the effectiveness of solid waste management. However, in many developing countries such as Vietnam, the situation and effectiveness of the policy implementation have not been studied extensively. This investigation is conducted to ascertain the situation, limitations, and challenges in implementing solid waste management policy in Vietnam. Then, solutions for the problems and improvements for implementation efficiency are presented. This work used online questionnaires to survey environmental managers in different localities and applied qualitative research method to analyze data. The results show that not all national policies on solid waste management are implemented in all localities. Waste separation is also the foremost concern in municipal waste management in most localities of Vietnam. Most of the localities claimed that the unrealistic nature and difficult implementation of the policies and the lack of needed resources are the main limitations and challenges in Vietnam. Survey results also revealed that different localities in Vietnam have different solutions to increase policy implementation efficiency. Besides, the study also found similarities in the implementation of policies in solid waste management between Vietnam and some other countries and also gathered some valuable lessons for the improvement strategy. Finally, the implementation of an effective domestic solid waste management policy is an important platform for improving environmental quality and ensuring the sustainable development of the nation and mankind.