Emissions of Greenhouse Gases from Municipal Solid Waste Management System in Ho Chi Minh City of Viet Nam

Accurate estimation of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is required for making effective climate change mitigation policies at the national level. Among major sources, municipal solid waste (MSW) is an important source of GHGs, such as methane (CH4), generated during the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter. In Viet Nam, the emissions of GHGs are not well quantified, in particular from the MSW management system. In this study, we estimated emissions of GHGs from the MSW management system of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), considering the current waste management practices. In HCMC, landfilling has been a common practice of solid waste management. About 85 percent of the total MSW generated in the city has been landfilled at two landfill sites. Our estimates show that landfilling was the significant source of GHGs in HCMC, with a net contribution of 781.05 kg CO2-equivalent (CO2-eq.) per tonne of MSW landfilled. From the whole MSW management system, the direct GHG emission was 768.61 (kg CO2-eq. per tonne of MSW) with avoided emissions of 72.47 (kg CO2-eq. per tonne of MSW) through composting and recycling of MSW. The net GHG emission from the MSW management system was 696.14 kg CO2-eq. per tonne of MSW (≈1.665 million tonnes of CO2-eq. per year). The GHG emission data of this study may be useful to policymakers for making effective climate change mitigation policies.