Waste Not: Consumer Habits and Waste Management in Ho Chi Minh City
Questions
- How do consumer habits in Vietnam affect waste patterns and management?
- What are consumer waste habits in Vietnam?
- What is the waste management system in Vietnam?
Background
Like many other developing countries, Vietnam faces environmental degradation due to its rapid economic growth. One major problem is improper waste management exacerbated by an increasing urban population and changing consumer habits. Urbanization can often be a cause of unsustainable development because of increased resource consumption and waste production. An average urban resident in Vietnam produces about twice the amount produced by people in rural areas (Thanh 2010). The urban population is growing at an alarming rate of 3.6 percent per year. However, factoring in unofficial migrants and urban sprawl, the number is closer to 5 percent per year (Dapice 2010). When more than 50% of the country’s municipal waste comes from cities, there needs to be an organized system in place to handle the volume of trash coming out (Thanh, 2010). Unfortunately, this system is not always efficient or environmentally friendly and most urban trash gets transported to landfills. As many as 85% of Vietnam’s landfills are at risk of causing environmental pollution and the transportation and collection of solid waste to dumpsites is very disorganized (Nguyen 2014). This is not an ideal system, however, it may be better than rural areas where waste is not transported away and is most often dumped somewhere nearby, usually into a river. Open rural dumpsites where urban waste gets deposited, while cost effective and relatively efficient for the disposer, do not fit into the picture of sustainable development.
The changing demographics in cities directly affects the amount and kinds of waste produced. Studies have shown that households with higher incomes produce more waste (Otoma 2013). Along with a growing upper class and motorbike commuters comes the prevalence of convenience foods and packaging. Motorbikes will pull up to the curb and without leaving their bikes, commuters can grab a sandwich and a drink, both double packaged with Styrofoam, paper, and plastic bags so they can easily hang off a bike handle (Jensen 2007). Schoolchildren, university students, and the working population all rely on this convenience. Changing food buying and consumer habits significantly contribute to the “paper, plastics, bulky wastes, and another multi-material packing prevalent in the waste streams” which is typical in the middle-income countries (Ngoc 2009). I propose to look at a small portion of consumer habits and waste management to assess common patterns of disposal.
Methods
Unfortunately, I do not possess enough proficiency in Vietnamese to conduct interviews or surveys so my primary research will be through observational studies and primary literature. It is necessary to know what options for waste disposal exist and where they are. I will choose a centrally located grid in Ho Chi Minh City in which to do my survey that hopefully will include big businesses, local businesses, residential areas and tourist locations. I will use a survey device like Fulcrum to spatially plot the different kinds of trash disposals on this grid. I also will observe where there are informal places to dispose of waste, either in piles or nonregulated containers. I will note the density of city trashcans and which kinds of disposal options are located on different blocks. This step of my methodology is necessary to begin my second stage of observations.
In order to address the question of what consumer waste habits are, I will choose a few different locations within the grid I established earlier. I will intentionally choose locations that have multiple visible disposal options and have a good amount of foot and motorbike traffic. I will sit somewhere inconspicuously and observe for a specified period of time in which I will note instances of disposal. I will take down information on where they put the trash, what the trash was, their gender, approximate age, and any other notes about each person.
It will also be necessary to know more about municipal waste management. This can be done through literature review as well as observationally to see how consumer habits and the waste system interact. If time allows, I will conduct a similar observational study focused on the informal recycling sector and trash workers.
References
Dapice, David, Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez, Nguyen Xuan Thanh. 2010. “Ho Chi Minh City:
The Challenges of Growth.” Harvard Policy Dialogue Papers. “Series on Vietnam’s WTO Accession and International Competitiveness Research”
Jensen, Rolf Warren, and Donald Peppard. 2007. “Food-Buying Habits in Hanoi.” Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 22 (2): 230–54.
Ngoc, Uyen Nguyen, and Hans Schnitzer. 2009. “Sustainable Solutions for Solid Waste Management in Southeast Asian Countries.” Waste Management 29 (6): 1982–95. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2008.08.031.
Nguyen, Thi Kim Thai. 2014. “Municipal Solid Waste Management in Vietnam Challenges and Solutions.” Municipal Solid Waste Management in Asia and the Pacific Islands. Springer-Verlag.
Otoma, Suehiro, Hai Hoang, Hai Hong, Izumi Miyazaki, and Ricardo Diaz. 2013. “A Survey on Municipal Solid Waste and Residents’ Awareness in Da Nang City, Vietnam.” Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management 15 (2): 187–94. doi:10.1007/s10163-012-0109-2.
Thanh, N. P.1* Y. Matsui. 2010. “Municipal Solid Waste Management in Vietnam: Status and the Strategic Actions”. Int. J. Environ. Res.