Overview Assessment of the Waste Situation in Hai Phong City

1. Geographical Context and Population Pressure on the Environment

Hai Phong City, following the administrative restructuring under Resolution No. 202/2025/QH15, has expanded its natural area to 3,194.72 km² with a population of approximately 4,664,124 people. As a strategic gateway to the sea for northern provinces and the largest industrial and seaport center in the North, Hai Phong faces significant environmental challenges. The diverse terrain—ranging from mountains and plains to islands—facilitates economic development but complicates environmental protection planning and waste incident response.

Alongside rapid industrialization and urbanization, the volume of solid waste, wastewater, and emissions generated is increasing. Meanwhile, the city's technical infrastructure for waste management has not yet been developed synchronously, leading to a high risk of serious environmental incidents without effective control plans.

2. Current Status of Solid Waste Management

2.1. Domestic Solid Waste

Currently, the total volume of domestic solid waste generated citywide is approximately 1,214,308 tons/year. Although the city has implemented a source-separation model, the rate of waste classified for recycling, reuse, or organic treatment has only reached about 21%.

Regarding treatment efforts:

• Urban areas: The sanitary treatment rate is approximately 95%.
• Rural areas: This rate is lower, at approximately 90%.
• Treatment infrastructure: The city currently has 07 centralized treatment sites (05 in the East, 02 in the West), 06 private incinerators with a capacity of about 2,120 tons/day, and 482 small-scale landfills in operation. Among these 482 temporary landfills, the city has renovated 178 into sanitary landfills and aims to cease all operations once modern plants in Dinh Vu and Lai Khe are commissioned.
• Technological direction: Hai Phong is accelerating procedures to build 02 waste-to-energy plants in Dinh Vu and Lai Khe with a total capacity of 2,000 tons/day-night to transition from landfilling to advanced waste-to-energy incineration technology.

2.2. Normal Industrial Solid Waste

According to statistics as of early 2026, the volume of normal industrial solid waste generated is approximately 764,392.630 tons. Notably, nearly half of this volume (373,379.1197 tons) has been collected for reuse or recycling. However, a large amount is still destroyed via incineration or burial (about 27,353.719 tons), with the remainder stored on-site by waste generators. There are currently 07 facilities licensed to treat this type of waste.

2.3. Hazardous and Medical Waste

Hazardous waste generation reached approximately 62,305.859 kg, with a collection and treatment rate as high as 99.8%. The city has a network of 15 hazardous waste treatment facilities spread across both Eastern and Western regions. Regarding medical waste, large hospitals and regional health centers often self-treat using steam sterilization technology or transfer it to authorized units like the Hai Phong Urban Environment Company.

3. Current Status of Liquid Waste Management (Wastewater)

Wastewater management remains a weakness in the city's environmental protection system:

• Urban domestic wastewater: Generation is about 411,000 m³/day-night. While some areas like Deep C have automatic monitoring systems, investing in centralized wastewater treatment plants for the entire city remains a major challenge.
• Industrial Clusters (ICs): Among the 41 operating ICs with a total wastewater volume of over 18,000 m³/day-night, only 8 out of 41 clusters have centralized wastewater treatment systems. This poses a high risk of river pollution.
• Craft Villages: This is the most alarming sector; Hai Phong has 79 recognized craft villages, but only 01 village has a centralized wastewater collection system. Most remaining villages (such as My Dong, Lap Le, Dong Tai) lack standard wastewater treatment works before discharging into the environment.
• Medical wastewater: Total generation is approximately 5,601 m³/day-night, which is basically treated on-site by medical facilities before discharge.

4. Gaseous Waste and Imported Scrap

Regarding gaseous waste, enterprises both inside and outside industrial zones are gradually transitioning and investing in mandatory automatic monitoring systems. However, specialized industries such as waste incinerators, cement production, thermal power, and metallurgy still harbor risks of releasing toxic emissions exceeding standards if systems fail or are operated incorrectly.

For imported scrap, Hai Phong has 16 facilities importing materials for production, with a total volume in 2025 reaching 183,338.11 tons, mainly consisting of plastic, paper, and scrap metal. Strict control of the import and storage process is key to preventing transboundary environmental incidents.

5. Assessment of Waste Treatment Infrastructure by Region

Environmental reports highlight the waste treatment capacity and reality at "hotspots" citywide:

• Prominent Industrial Zones (IZ):
  • Dinh Vu IZ: 81% occupancy, generating 11,120 kg of normal industrial waste/year, with automatic monitoring and a wastewater treatment capacity of 6,000 m³/day-night.
  • Nam Dinh Vu IZ (Phase I): Equipped with a 5,772 m³ incident pond for risk prevention.
  • VSIP Hai Phong:8% occupancy, featuring a 4,200 m³ incident flotation tank.
  • Japan-Hai Phong IZ: A typical area with a very large volume of industrial waste (6 million kg/year) and hazardous waste reaching 4.6 million kg/year, requiring extremely strict monitoring.
• Centralized Treatment Sites:
  • Trang Cat: Landfill capacity of 650-700 tons/day, microbial fertilizer production of 200 tons/day, and a hazardous waste incinerator at 4.8 tons/day.
  • Dinh Vu: Landfill capacity of 350-450 tons/day.
  • Gia Minh: Landfill capacity of 630 tons/day.

6. Identification of Risks and Incident Response Capacity

Hai Phong has clearly identified city-level "hotspots" at high risk for waste incidents, including landfills (Trang Cat, Dinh Vu) and the emission treatment systems of ChinFon Cement, Pha Lai Thermal Power, and Hoa Phat Steel. Border areas or locations near flowing water sources are the most sensitive, as waste can spread far through river and sea systems.

Regarding response resources:

• Currently, the city does not have a separate specialized force for waste incidents; activities rely on concurrent forces from departments, sectors, and environmental companies.
• Mobilizable equipment includes hundreds of waste transport vehicles, high-capacity pumps, chemical incident response kits, and protective gear (over 500 gas masks).
• The Environmental Monitoring Center (Department of Agriculture and Environment) is the core unit for monitoring and assessing pollution levels when incidents occur.

7. Overall Assessment

In general, waste management in Hai Phong is in an important transition phase. The city has achieved positive results in hazardous waste treatment and urban domestic waste collection rates. However, "gaps" in infrastructure within industrial clusters and craft villages remain significant barriers to green growth goals.

To ensure sustainable development and maintain its image as a "Green and Safe Port City," the city is resolutely implementing the following:

1. Accelerating the progress of waste-to-energy plants to reduce the burden on increasingly overloaded landfills.
2. Investing synchronously in centralized wastewater treatment systems, particularly for ICs and craft villages identified as having severe infrastructure shortages.
3. Strengthening the capacity of concurrent forces through periodic training and waste incident drills to shift from a passive to a proactive response state.
4. Digitalizing management by building a shared database system to continuously monitor waste flows from key industrial zones like Japan-Hai Phong or Dinh Vu.

With focused leadership from the City Civil Defense Steering Committee and the participation of core environmental enterprises, Hai Phong is fully capable of controlling the waste situation and responding effectively to emergencies in the 2026-2030 period.