Management of Marine Plastic Waste Generated from Land-based Sources in Viet Nam: Problems, Constraints, and Solutions

Viet Nam is ranked No 5 in global plastic waste contribution to marine environment. The long coastline in Viet Nam provides a livelihood for millions of households as well as the food security for the whole country. The use of plastics per capita increased nearly eleven fold, from 3.8 kg/person in 1990 to 41 kg/person in 2015. The two highy populated cities (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) alone generate 80 tonnes of plastic waste every day. Landfilling is the primary treatment method of solid waste while recycling is still limited. Tax for plastic bags exists, but implementation is not efficient. Application of Extended Producer Responsibility still faces many constraints. Regular monitoring and data collection related to the status of marine plastic waste pollution are inadequate. Moving forward Viet Nam needs to focus on a number of issues including strengthning the legislation, raising awareness, promoting research on innovative recycling technologies, and promoting international cooperation. This paper investigates current issues, challenges, and constraints in managing plastic waste in Viet Nam and makes recommendations for improvement. The paper utilises an unsystematic narrative overview as the research method. © 2021 The Authors. Published by IEREK press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of ESSD’s International Scientific Committee of Reviewers.


Introduction
Viet Nam has a long coastline, high population, rapid economic growth, urbanization, and tourism development in recent years. It has a land area of 33,123 thousand hectares (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment -(MONRE), 2016) with a coastal length of about 3,200 km, excluding the coastline of islands (Viet Nam Government Portal. (2018) with approximately 3,450 rivers, streams and 114 estuaries flowing into the sea MONRE. (2015). The total population in Viet Nam was estimated at 94.67 million people in 2018 (General Statistics Office of Viet Nam, 2018), which is expected to increase by 18% in the period between 2015 and 2030 (The World Bank, 2018). The country has also experienced rapid urbanization. However, the urban infrastructure has still not met the environmental requirements (MONRE, 2017). Viet Nam had relatively high economic growth over the past ten years, with GDP growth increasing from 5.66% in 2008 to 7.08% in 2018 ( Figure 1). Consumer industries, especially those generating plastic waste, are growing. In 2018, total commercial marketing of consumer goods and services were estimated at 4,395 trillion Viet Nam Dong (VND), an increase of 11.7%, compared to that in 2017 (General Statistics Office of Viet Nam, 2018).  The Viet Nam's plastic sector is growing rapidly increasing from 16% to 18% in the period of 2010 to 2015. The use of plastic products per capita increased nearly 11 times, from 3.8 kg/person in 1990 to 41 kg/person in 2015 GDP Growth (%) (Viet Nam Plastics Association, 2015). The industrial and construction plastics account for the high proportion in plastic industry structure. However, plastic packaging had also increased due to the growth of some products such as food and beverages and non-food sectors with an increase from 2.8% to 15.1% (Kien Duong, 2018) (Table 1). Despite the rapid growth of the plastic industry, domestic plastic raw materials only met 20-25%, the rest was imported (Viet Nam Plastics Association, 2015). Plastic scrap imported into Viet Nam increased from 2016 and surged in the first six months of 2018 due to the ban of scrap import of China (Table 2). Besides, the illegal import of waste in the form of plastic scrap also increased; until January 25, 2019, there were more than 24,000 scrap imported containers unclaimed for more than 90 days in all seaports (Nhan Dan Online, 2019). This paper investigates current issues, challenges, and constraints in managing plastic waste in Viet Nam and makes recommendations for improvement. The authors utilise an unsystematic narrative overview to conduct the research. Such literature review is considered as most appropriate for the type of research required for this study. A narrative overview means the paper will condense information and resources from various sources (eg. Governmental legislations, peer-reviewed journal articles, government and international reports etc) to understand the development of the topic and develop future directions to solve issues, challenges and gaps.

Marine plastic waste pollution in Viet Nam
Together with the growing population, rapid urbanization and tourism development, economic growth in general, and the development of plastic industry, the generation of domestic solid waste have been growing in Viet Nam. There is a significant amount of solid waste, including plastic waste, ending up in open environment as a result of mismanagement. Most of these plastics end up finishing in the sea because plastic waste is easy to follow rivers to the sea, owing to its lightweight under the impact of wind and flow (The World Bank, 2018). Plastic waste at sea is a significant concern of the world today because of its adverse effects on marine ecosystems. According to a recent study, Viet Nam is ranked fourth country, which contributes to the most significant volume of plastic waste entering the ocean (closely following China, Indonesia, and the Philippines) with around 0.28 to 0.73 tons per year (Jambeck, et. al., 2015).
The marine pollution caused by plastic waste on beaches and coastal areas and islands in Viet Nam is becoming a major issue. The volume of plastic waste collected is about 8-10m 3 per day from the bays, which belong to Cat Ba archipelago in Hai Phong city; a dozen of tons of plastic waste such as plastic bottle, plastic bag in Do Son beach, etc. (Tuoi Tre Paper, 2018). The 2018 "Let's Clean the Sea" Campaign, which was held once a week at least one area contaminated by marine debris, has collected 1,282 tons of marine debris (Summary of the Campaign 'Let's Clean the Sea', 2019). According to many fishermen in the South-Central Area, marine plastic waste in coastal areas is estimated to be three parts of fish and one part of plastic waste (Alarming Plastic Waste in Seafood Exploitation, 2019).

Environmental impacts of plastic waste
The marine litter mainly consists of plastic waste generated inland and finiding its way to oceans. Marine litter has become a problem to many countries due to its major impacts on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Due to this reason plastic waste contamination in open environment is attracting much attention from both researchers, policy makers, and the general public. Since marine organisms can ingest or become entangled plastic waste, marine litter is considered hazardous to the entire ecosystem.
A study conducted on eight regions in the Asia and Pacific Region (between Australia and China) concluded that the likelihood of disease in coral reefs increased to 96%, This would directly affect organisms that colonize these coral reefs for feeding, breeding, etc. For instance, another study concluded that the loss of integrity of coral reefs have reduced fisheries productivity by a factor of 3 (Lamb et al., 2018). A study conducted on the inshore reefs of pg. 67 Australia's Great Barrier Reef revealed coral would often regard microplastics for prey and can consume up to ~50 g of microplastics (Hall et al., 2015, Hankins et al, 2018. Ingestion of plastic waste by fish also affects human consumption and consumption by predators, such as birds. Fish samples collected from a market in Makassar, Indonesia, revealed anthropogenic debris in 28% of individual fish and 33% of individual shellfish. This raises a concern about the effects of fish consumption on human well being (Rochman et al., 2015).
Most effects on sea turtles due to marine litter arise from ingestion and entanglement. Ingestion of plastics by these sea turtles causes intestinal blockage, internal injuries, and malnutrition. This ingestion may occur directly or indirectly. There is evidence that juvenile green sea turtles ingest plastics through the consumption of macroalgae (Di Beneditto and Awabdi, 2014). Entanglement remains the most common cause of mortality in sea turtles, causing lacerations, increased drag, which may cause drowning and subsequent death (Nelm et al., 2015). Studies conducted on green sea turtles found that there was a 50% chance of mortality if a sea turtle had 14 pieces of plastic in their gut. It is also suggested that ingestion occurs most frequently in juvenile sea turtles (Wilcox et al., 2018).

Policies and legislation on plastic waste management
In recent years, Viet Nam has issued many policies and legislations to take measures on precaution, prevention, and treatment of solid waste, including plastic waste (Box 1). The country has also established a system of agencies from the central to local level on waste management. Accordingly, the MONRE is the focal ministry to unify the state management of solid waste, in coordination with the Ministry of Construction (

Regulations on prevention, collection, and treatment of solid waste (including plastic waste)
• Law on Environmental Protection 2014; • Law on Environmental Protetion in 2020, which will replace the Law on Environmental Protection in 2014 and will be efective from 1 st January, 2022. According to the legislation on solid waste in Viet Nam, waste should be separated at the source, reduced, reused, recycled and treated. Recycling and energy recovery from waste is specially enhanced to limit landfilling. A hazardous waste generator should do registration at environmental agencies, and the waste should be managed only by licensed companies. The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mechanism is applied with products and packaging materials with recycable value for the recycling responsibility of the producers and importers in the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, which has not applied before. With regards to plastic waste, the Law on Environmental Protection Tax 2010 has imposed tax on plastic bags. Besides, Viet Nam is promoting the usage of biodegradable plastic bags in daily life, as well as regulations on certification of this kind of bags.

Problems and constraints
Firstly, a landfill is the primary treatment method of solid waste while recycling is still limited. Current policies and legislations have provided incentives for products from recycling and waste treatment activities in terms of land lease, loan, taxes, prices, and product consumption, etc. However, treatment of solid waste by landfill remains the majority, and only 25-30% are treated by intermediate process and recycling (including plastic waste). The current actual cost per tonne of solid waste treatment is estimated at $ 24 for collection, $ 11 for transportation and $ 4 for landfill (The World Bank, 2018). This cost is too low, leading to creating unfair competition for other treatment methods such as energy recovery incineration and composting. Furthermore, recycling of plastic waste is carried out at many informal recycling facilities in craft villages with outdated technologies (Viet Nam Environment Administration, 2018). This activity poses a risk of environmental pollution and creates unfair competition for investors in the field of formal plastic waste recycling.
pg. 69 Secondly, the tax for plastic bags has been applied, but the implementation is still limited. The Law on Environmental Protection Tax in 2010 regulates taxation on plastic bags with a tax between 30,000 and 50,000 VND per kg and applying 50,000 VND per kg from January 1, 2019 (Viet Nam National Assembly, 2014, Viet Nam National Assembly Standing Committee. (2018), which is equivalent to 250-500 VND/plastic bag. It is highly likely that the environmental tax applying for plastic bags is not high enough to limit the usage of plastic bags, especially single used plastic bags (Government of Viet Nam, 2017). Also, pre-packaged goods and eco-friendly plastic bags are not taxable (Government of Viet Nam, 2012). Till May 2018, there were 43 plastic bags of 38 companies that were granted certification for such products (Viet Nam Environment Administration, 2018); however, the quality of these bags should also continue to be viewed in terms of environmental friendliness with full testing and scientific processes. Also, imported plastic bags and domestic plastic products for prepackaged goods are also not subject to this tax (The Paradox of Friendly Plastic Bags, 2019).
There are some obstacles in the collection of nylon bag tax. The total tax collected from nylon bags decreases 16 times from 2012 to 2016, while the total amount of environmental protection tax increases four times ( Table 3) (Government of Viet Nam, 2017). The price of single-use nylon bags is sometimes equal to the tax rate and even lower, with prices ranging from 25,000-50,000 VND/kg. Consequently, single-use nylon bags are usually provided free of charge and it is difficult for the business of environmentally friendly bags to be viable. Thirdly, current policies provide for a lot of incentives to develop manufacturing industries related to plastic products; however, the implementation of EPR is still limited. The State has made a number of preferential and supportive policies to develop the plastic industry, namely: (i) production of plastic components and technical rubber (Government of Viet Nam, 2015d); (ii) supporting industries (such as synthetic fibers, electronic product components with plastic parts, rubber components; automotive plastic, plastic components in high quality, etc ... ) (Government of Viet Nam, 2015a); projects on molds and plastic equipment manufacturing are preferentially lent up to 85% of the total capital (Ministry of Industry and Trade., 2011).
Therefore, the plastic industry will have the right conditions for its development, leading to an increase in consumption and disposal of plastic products. Meanwhile, the implementation of the EPR in accordance with Decision No.16/2015/QD-TTg dated May 22, 2015 on collection and treatment of discarded products (including even plastic waste from used waste electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and transportation means) remains very limited. So far only a few large enterprises have established points for collection of discarded waste and the recovery of discarded products has hardly been implemented. Although regulations on EPR for packaging materials including plastics is regulated in the Law on Enviromental Protection in 2020 they have not detailed to implement.
Fourthly, there are some obstacles in policies and laws related to collection and management of marine plastic debris. There are no clear regulations on marine waste collection responsibilities, especially marine plastic debris until the Law on Environmental Protection in 2020 is approved, however, this Law provides only genernal responsibity of Provincial-level People's Committees in the direction of the collection and treatment of plastic waste in its locality. Furthermore, the identification of provincial boundaries and responsibilities of state management on the sea is not specific. Up to now, the collection of waste at sea, including plastic waste, is mainly done by seasonal projects or through environmental campaign and communication events. Vehicles, equipment and resources for such work are still very limited, thus marine plastic waste collection is only carried out at some beaches.

pg. 70
Finally, the regular monitoring, investigation, survey, and information collection related to the state of marine plastic waste contamination are limited. The system of control and supervision of marine environmental pollution in general and contamination of plastic waste, in particular, is much less and not adequate with the length of the coastline. There are currently only three observation stations in Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Hai Phong . Besides, there is lack of national technical standards on seawater quality with limits related to plastic waste.

Reasons for problems and constraints
Firstly, there are financial constraints to carry out the end of life management of plastic waste from land-based activities. The cost of collecting, transporting and treating domestic solid waste mainly comes from the state budget (about 4,000 billion VND/year) because the revenue from environmental sanitation fees meets only about 25% of demand. However, provincial budgets are limited and local authorities cannot provide enough capital for waste management (The World Bank, 2018). At present, the average investment capital for organic fertilizer and incineration facilities is 662,972 million VND and 585,780 million VND/ton respectively, while the average investment capital for landfill is only VND 30,190 million/m 3 (The World Bank, 2018). Therefore, landfilling is the choice of many local authorities, leading to leakage of plastic waste into the oceans.
Secondly, human resources to protect the environment is limited, especially at the grassroots level, to effectively implement policies and laws concerning plastic waste. State management staff on environmental protection have not met the requirements in terms of quantity and quality. By 2016, the total number of state management staff on the environment is 17,724, of which 11,996 are part-time officers at the commune level (67%) . The environmental management staff is young, lack of high expertise and experience, less trained and updated knowledge regularly.
Thirdly, there are constraints in policy enforcement, inspection, and handling of violations. There is a shortage of human resources for control in policy implementation on natural resources and environment. There are 672 inspectors in the whole country; average of 2 officials under MONRE being in charge of one province and about 07 local officials in each province doing this job. These inspectors are responsible for inspection for all the sectors under MONRE's responsibilities. In the inspection and examination plan of the localities, only 51% of the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONREs) have activities on examining law enforcement on the environment (MONRE 2018).
On the other hand, according to regulations, waste littering, including plastic waste, is subject to strict penalties of up to 7 million VND (Government of Viet Nam, 2015a). However, although violations are prevalent, the sanctioning of these violations is almost not implemented.
Fourthly, some policies are not implemented or given unrealistic goals. In order to control and limit plastic waste, Viet Nam has developed a program to improve environmental protection by using non-biodegradable plastic bags (Government of Viet Nam, 2013). It has set targets by 2020: (i) reducing 65% of the volume of non-degradable plastic bags in supermarkets and trade establishments compared to 2010; (ii) reducing 50% of the volume of nonbiodegradable plastic bags in traditional markets compared to 2010; (iii) collecting and reusing 50% of nonbiodegradable plastic bag waste generated daily. However, until now, most of the projects under this Decision have not operated because of various reasons. Hence there is no doubt that the objectives mentioned above has not been achieved by 2020.
Fifthly, the coordination among agencies in waste management is not suitable. MONRE unifies the state management of environmental protection, but some management duties related to solid waste collection and treatment are assigned to the MOC. In provinces/cities, this activity is assigned to the Department of Construction (DOC) and DONRE. Recently, the Government decided to assign the MONRE to be the national focal agency on solid waste management (GOV, 2019), which is currently in the process of transferring implementation. The Ministry of Science and Technology was assigned to lead and coordinate with the MOC and MONRE to evaluate the new domestic solid waste treatment technology, which was first researched and applied in Viet Nam. However, for technology that is not applied for the first time, it is not clear which ministry is responsible. On the other hand, pg. 71 the MONRE is assigned the responsibility to guide and organize the evaluation, inspection, and evaluation of waste treatment technology.
Sixthly, understanding, awareness, responsibility, and participation of stakeholders are still limited. The knowledge and appreciation of environmental protection of sectors and especially local authorities are scarce. In many places, local government leaders lose their power in this work (Environmental Officials, 2019). Violations of organizations and enterprises on environmental protection are quite widespread, for example, in 2017, 33% of the inspected establishments have committed violations (MONRE, 2018). People, especially coastal people, have a habit of littering the sea, including plastic waste such as fishing gear, bottles, nylon bags, etc. For example, 80% of fishermen in Ngu Loc commune, Thanh Hoa province, keeping their habit of discharging domestic solid waste into the sea is a stark example Tuoi Tre Paper. (2018). Consumers still have the practice of using non-disposable plastic products and discharging them into the environment.

Recommendations
Firstly, reviewing, building and completing policies and laws on municipal waste management with special focus on plastic waste should be implemented urgently. Plastic waste management based on a circular economy approach should be strictly considered by competent authorities in Viet Nam, which is considered as a good practice in some countries such as Japan, Singapore, France, Netherlands, German, United States, etc, to control the lifecycle of plastic procducts and reduce the emision of plastic waste (Nguyen Hoang Nam, 2019). Furthermore, the Government should make the policies and laws to concentrate on recycling, minimizing landfilling and reducing the disposal of plastic waste. The environmental protection tax on plastic bags should be increased; tax on other singleuse plastic products should be imposed. The usage of single-use products should be gradually limited and prohibited by the Vietnamese Government, which is being applied successfully in countries like Belgium, Denmark, Greece, and Israel to reduce the generation of single-use plastic waste (UNEP, 2018). The Government should also develop policies to incentivise the production and use of green products to replace the single-use plastic products. Regulations for EPR to recycle, collect and treat (directly and indirectly) plastic packaging and other plastic products should be detailed and provided enough resources to implement effectively. The Government should specify the responsibilities of stakeholders in the management of plastic waste in oceans.
Secondly, the Government should effectively implement the sorting of domestic solid waste at source, enhance the collection, treatment, recycling, and reuse of solid waste, including plastic waste. The priority should be given to urban areas and residential areas along rivers, coastal areas, and seaports. The regulations improved concerning sorting, collection and treatment of domestic solid waste regulated in the Law on Enviromental Protection in 2020 should be effectively implemented to avoid the mis-management leading to the leaking of the plastic waste into the sea. Apply a landfill tax to ensure competitiveness between landfill with other waste treatment methods; prohibit burying solid waste containing plastic waste in riparian and coastal areas.
Thirdly, the focal agencies of solid waste management at all levels should be MONRE and DONRE. Responsibilities and coordination mechanisms among relevant agencies in solid waste management, including plastic waste, should be specified. Moreover, the Government should strengthen the capacity of management agencies, of which focusing on environmental management officials.
Fourthly, developing feasible strategies, planings, and specific action plans following Viet Nam's practices should be one of priorities. The Government should implement effectively the National Action Plan on Marine Plastic Debris Management by 2030; handle unsanitary landfills; invest in crucial projects on solid waste treatment, which are suitable to the conditions of sub-regions and regions; enhance research and application of modern science and technology in the collection, treatment, monitoring and supervision of marine plastic waste. The investment of Can Tho province in Viet Nam to build a solid waste treatment plant for energy recovery incineration, which treats 70% of domestic solid waste generated in this province, is a good example to apply the other provinces to limit the landfill in Viet Nam (Ngoc Han, 2020).

pg. 72
Fifthly, the number of national and local environmental inspectors should be increased, and their capacity should be strengthened. Inspection plans should be implemented at provinces/cities to take precaution, preventing and treating plastic waste from land-based activities to restrict disposing of plastic waste into the sea.
Sixthly, promoting and raising awareness of stakeholders on avoiding, preventing, minimizing and treating plastic waste should be enriched. Some local authorities in Viet Nam have applied successfully the involvement of stakeholders to deal with plastic waste problems and Cat Hai district in Hai Phong city is a typical example. In this District, the local authority mobilizes the participation of individuals, travel facicities and social organizations to use environmentally friendly products to replace the plastic products as well as clean the environment (Hoang Tan, 2019). Therefore, the success of Cat Hai district should be used to develop the suitable policies to adjust behaviors, habits of using single-use plastic products to familiar with the use of environmentally friendly products (. The Government should ensure adequate mechanisms to encourage successful implementation of domestic solid waste management such as sorting at source, limiting plastic waste disposal into the rivers and sea; help stakeholders to effectively implement the slogan: "reducing, reusing and recycling plastic waste".
Finally, international cooperation on marine environmental protection, including reducing and treating transboundary plastic waste at sea should be promoted. Viet Nam should be active in developing a comprehensive regional and global cooperation mechanism, which incorporate programs and projects aiming to coordinate and implement control and reduction of ocean plastic waste.

Conclusions
Marine plastic waste is a global environmental problem. Plastic waste is being present throughout the seas and seriously threatening the marine environment and ecosystem. Globally, Viet Nam is considerd by a recent study as one of the top five countries for plastic waste discharge into the sea. The Government has been working hard to resolve this pressing issue, but there are numbers of limitations and shortcomings in policies and laws; lack of resources for implementation, inspection, examination and handling of violations; limited awareness of stakeholders on marine plastic waste problems.
Therefore, in moving forward, Viet Nam needs to focus on the following isues: a) To complete the legislations system on waste management by isuing decree and circulars for implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 on EPR of plastic packaging; ban on plastic bags and certain single-use plasctics and; guidelines for monitoring and management of marine plastic waste. Economic instruments such as tax on landfill, waste volume-based charge (pay-as-you-throw) should be introduced. b) To successfully implement the National Action Plan on Marine Plastic Debris Management by 2030 through an appropriate funding program to ensure achievements of objectives of the plan. The collection, recycling and treatment of plastic waste should be further strengthened.
c) To continously raise awareness of people and management agencies on marine plastic waste, to implement the national campaign on prevention and reducing plastic waste through which knowledge on plastics and microplastics also to be enhanced. d) To promote researches and studies on diferrent aspects of marine plastic waste managemnt including recycling technologies, impacts of plastics and microplastics on health and environment, related standards and technical regulations, ect. e) To promote international cooperation on marine plastic waste management. Viet Nam should proactively participate into development of an international agreement/convention on marine plastic waste and an international center should be estalished in the country.
Being a rising economy in the South East Asia region, Viet Nam is standing in front of a development decade with many opportunities and challenges. In the next 10 years the country should improve its environmental management including successful solutions to resolve the marine plastic waste issue as strongly committed by the government.