Domestic Solid Waste Management in Tho Nghiep Commune, Xuan Truong District, Nam Dinh Province: Current Status and Solutions

Abstract

This article presents research results on the current status and proposes solutions to improve the efficiency of domestic solid waste (DSW) management in Tho Nghiep commune, Xuan Truong district, Nam Dinh province. The survey was conducted for 170 households and the results show that 40.59% of households process a part of DSW by themselves (=equivalently 10.8% of total DSW) while the rest is transferred to the commune's garbage collection team. The other 59.41% of the households transfer all the solid waste to the commune's waste collection team for treatment at the centralized area. The average volume of DSW released in the whole commune is about 5.5 tons/day, collected with a frequency of three days/week. The collected solid waste is further classified and treated at the commune's incinerator treatment zone by Truong Phat Agricultural Service and Green Environment Cooperative. The environmental assessment of Tho Nghiep DSW treatment area was conducted in November 2022. The results from the incinerator exhaust gas samples showed that four out of five parameters (including SO2, CO, NOx, HCl) are below the allowable standards, only one out of five parameters (Total dust) are higher than the allowable standard of QCVN 61-MT:2016/BTNMT on DSW incinerators. For the surface water samples taken at the southern infield ditch of the incinerator, all eight parameters (pH, BOD5 (at 20oC), COD, TSS, NH4+, NO3-, PO43-, Coliforms) were below permissible standard of QCVN 08-MT:2015/BTNMT on surface water quality. Based on these results, a few proposed solutions have been identified to improve the effectiveness of DSW management in the study area.