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Urban areas in Southeast Asia are experiencing staggering levels of growth and development. This change perpetrated by economic reforms has created a newly functioning social condition comprised of a growing middle class with expendable capital. This has resulted in greater levels of consumption and, as a consequence, environmental degradation in the form of urban solid waste pollution. A traditional method touted as a modern solution is organic solid waste recycling. Under controlled conditions organic solid waste could be turned into compost (earth like soil substance rich in nutrients). However, a critical issue has hindered the production of economically feasible compost. The issue is related to source separation. Non-organic materials - such as plastics and metals - are inadvertently mixed in with organic solid wastes at the separation stage, thus contaminating and lowering the quality and quantity of the compost. This paper looks at a new community-based model currently employed in Quy Nhon, Vietnam to determine whether or not it would work in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]