Raising awareness of local people in order to effectively implement eco city plan on solid waste classification in hai phong city

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT To complete the final thesis, firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Dr Tran Thi Thu Ha for the continuous support of my thesis, for her patience, motivation, and immense knowledge Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my final thesis I sincerely thank to the leadership, corporate departments of Hai Phong urban and environment one member limited company have created favorable conditions for me to practice during an internship at the company Finally I would like say thanks to my school – Vietnam National University of Forest has given me an opportunity to be practiced at my hometown to apply the knowledge I learned from the school Through this internship, I get much new and useful experience that is helpful for my future work Because my knowledge is limited, this thesis may have some mistakes, I would like to receive the comments from the teachers to help my thesis becoming more completed ABSTRACT Solid waste treatment is one of the biggest challenges that people have to solve to protect the environment To save time in this process, solid waste classification is necessary to be implemented at all the households Solid waste classification at the source not only reduces landfill area, reduces processing costs, but also has important implications in the reuse – recycling In Haiphong city, one project named “Eco City Plan”, which is about solid waste classification, is carried out in the center of the city This study was conducted to support effectively implementation of Eco City Plan on solid waste classification in Hai Phong city by assessing the awareness of local people on solid waste, determining factors that affect to awareness of local people on solid waste and proposing solutions to raise awareness of local people on Eco City Plan Methods are used in this study are collecting existed data, survey questionnaires and group discussion The study found that there are differences in knowledge about solid waste classification according to gender, age, occupation and education level The awareness is also affected by these factors In general, most of people assess solid waste classification as important and they recognized their role as the key stakeholder to implement the project successfully But the local people are not prepared to implement classifying solid waste at home because most of them are confused and not want to waste their time To solve these problems, The thesis proposes some solutions as establishing environmental propaganda and education about solid waste classification by social media, establishing solid waste practice course for local people, adding solid waste classification as a criteria to assess the cultural family, guiding people to classify solid waste by the guidance from project staffs, local authorities staffs and volunteers, gathering and buying inorganic waste for recycling and educating young people the importance of solid waste classification TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEME ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES INTRODUCTION GOALS AND (SPECIFIC) OBJECTIVES 2.1 General objective 2.2 Specific objectives 3 SITE DESCRIPTION 4 METHODS 4.1 Collecting data and information 4.1.1 Secondary data collection 4.1.2 Primary data collection 4.2 Data analysis 4.2.1 Accessing the awareness of local people 4.2.2 SWOT analysis RESULTS 5.1 The description of the respondents 5.2 Knowledge 10 5.2.1 Knowledge about solid waste classification by gender 10 5.2.2 Knowledge about solid waste classification by age 11 5.2.3 Knowledge about solid waste classification by educational level 12 5.2.4 Knowledge about solid waste classification by occupation 13 5.3 Awareness 14 5.3.1 Assessing the quality of solid waste collecting services 14 5.3.2 Assessing the important level of solid waste classification by gender 15 5.3.3 Assessing the important level of solid waste classification by age 16 5.3.4 Assessing the important level of solid waste classification by educational level 17 5.3.5 Assessing the important level of solid waste classification by occupation 18 5.3.6 Assessing the important level of stakeholders in solid waste classification 19 5.3.7 Assessing the level of willingness to classify solid waste 20 5.4 Behavior 21 5.4.1 The number of households classifies solid waste at home 21 5.4.2 The person usually classifies solid waste at home 21 5.5 Factors that affect to the awareness of local people in solid waste classification 22 5.5.1 Sources of information for households about solid waste classification 22 5.5.2 Reasons for non-classify solid waste 23 5.5.3 Reasons for classify solid waste 24 5.6 Assessing the status of project by strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats 24 5.7 Recommendations 26 CONCLUSION 29 REFERENCES 30 APPENDIX LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 SWOT analysis of the status of project Table 5.1 Descriptions of respondents Table 5.2 Assessing the solid waste treatment form of households Table 5.3 Knowledge about solid waste classification according to gender .10 Table 5.4 Knowledge about solid waste classification according to age group 11 Table 5.5 Knowledge about solid waste classification according to educational level 12 Table 5.6 Knowledge about solid waste classification according to occupation 13 Table 5.7 Assessing the quality of solid waste collecting services in local area 14 Table 5.8 Assessing the important level of solid waste classification according to gender 16 Table 5.9 Assessing the important level of solid waste classification according to 16 age group 16 Table 5.10 Assessing the important level of solid waste classification according to educational level 17 Table 5.11 Accessing the important level of solid waste classification according to occupation 18 Table 5.12 Assessing the important level of stakeholders in solid waste classification 19 Table 5.13 Accessing the level of willingness to classify solid waste 20 Table 5.14 The person usually classifies solid waste at home 22 Table 5.15 Sources of information for households about solid waste classification 22 Table 5.16 Reasons for non-classify solid waste at home 23 Table 5.17 Reasons for classify solid waste 24 Table 5.18 SWOT analysis of the project 25 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Hai Phong geographic map Figure 4.1 Geographical location of Nguyen Duc Canh street and Quang Trung street Figure 5.1 The quality of solid waste collecting services in local area 15 Figure 5.2 The level of willingness to classify solid waste 20 Figure 5.3 The number of households classifies solid waste at home 21 Figure 5.4 Some recycled products from inorganic solid waste 28 INTRODUCTION Environment plays an important role in human life It assumes three main functions: providing resources, providing a place to live and space containing garbage Currently, the speed of urbanization and industrialization in the country is growing rapidly and will continue going up in the next several years The exploitation and consumption of natural resources by humans is also constantly increasing, raising environmental problems of gas waste, liquid waste and solid waste The pollution of environment is not only a problem in the world, but also a big challenge in Vietnam One of the main causes lead to the pollution in Vietnam is solid waste According to Clause 10, Article of the Environmental Protection Law, “Solid waste is waste in form of solid, was discharged from production process, business, services, other activities, ” Currently, the average daily Vietnam generated 12 million tons of domestic solid waste which means one Vietnamese emits about 200 kg of solid waste a year averagely The increasing of solid waste increases the pollution mainly because of lacking in solid waste treatment, especially solid waste classification in the head source In recent years, along with the development of the country, Hai Phong city has gained tremendous achievements But these achievements also increased the amount of waste that lead to serious impact on the lives of people as well as the region's environment Eco City Plan has aimed to classify, recycle waste into resources, recycled materials It was built with the goal of reducing household waste, industrial waste recycling into fuel solid fuels (fuel bars), and energy recycling, plastic, promote resource circulation The International Cooperation Agency of Japan (JICA), the Company and the Group Forval JAC jointly conducted “Survey the feasibility of the technical and technological classification, processing, production of recycled product of Eco City Plan in Hai Phong On July 2015, Japan conducted field surveys on the situation in the Hai Phong garbage and construction waste classification model watershed in Le Chan and Hong Bang – two districts in the central of the city In order to implement Eco City Plan, the indispensable condition is that all the government, implementing agencies and people of the city, especially people living in Le Chan and Hong Bang districts, classify solid waste as well as how to focus collect the waste that can be recycled into resources together However, the awareness, the responsible participation in environmental protection of the people of Hai Phong in general, as well as people living in the two districts under Eco City Plan has not really become a habit in their life Therefore, I decided to conduct a thesis titled: “Raising awareness of local people in order to effectively implement Eco City Plan on solid waste classification in Hai Phong city” 2 GOALS AND (SPECIFIC) OBJECTIVES 2.1 General objective The general objective of the research is to support effectively implementation of Eco City Plan on solid waste classification in Hai Phong city 2.2 Specific objectives - To assess awareness of local people on Eco City Plan on solid waste classification in Hong Bang and Le Chan districts in Hai Phong; - To determine factors that affect to awareness of local people on Eco City Plan on solid waste classification in Hong Bang and Le Chan district, Hai Phong city; - To propose solutions to raise awareness of local people on Eco City Planand effectively implement the Eco City Plan on solid waste classification in Hai Phong city 3 SITE DESCRIPTION “Hai Phong is a harbor city – one of the industrial centers, the largest port in northern Vietnam It is also the center of economy, culture, health, education, science, business and technology of the northern coastal areas This is the third largest city of the country Hai Phong is one of five municipalities in Vietnam, first class city, along with Da Nang and Can Tho As of 12/2015, Hai Phong has 2.1035 million people, of which the urban population accounted for 46.1% and the rural population accounted for 53.9%, the third most populous city in Vietnam.” (Wikipedia.com) Figure 3.1 Hai Phong geographic map (Source: investinvietnam.com) “Hai Phong has many industrial areas and large commercial and service centers, tourism, education, health and coastal fisheries of Northern Vietnam Haiphong is a growth pole of the northern economic triangle which includes Hanoi, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh." (Wikipedia.com) 5.5.3 Reasons for classify solid waste An opposite question was used to ask people about the reasons for classify solid waste 135 respondents participated in answering this question The detail result is shown in the table below Table 5.17 Reasons for classify solid waste Reason N % Good facilities provided/ convenient 11 8.15% For the future environment/ generations 2.96% Saves landscape 5.93% Personal satisfaction/ habit 3.70% Reduce time to treat solid waste for the environmental company 12 8.89% Incentives/ Monetary/ Reward 81 60.0% My own awareness about the importance of classifying solid 14 10.4% waste/ duty (Source: Results calculated by author based on data surveyed, 2016) The study found that 60.0% (81 people) of the respondents choose incentives/ monetary/ rewards as the most reason for classifying solid waste Only 2.96% (4 people) choose the option of “for the future environment/ generations” and 3.70% (5 people) is personal satisfaction, habit This result indicated that most of people like to get benefit from solid waste classification It may courage their spirit to participate in the project and it is the critical factor affects to the behavior of the local people – which decides the effectiveness of implementing solid waste classification 5.6 Assessing the status of project by strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats According to the results above, I summarize the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats to assess the status of the project The details are shown in Table 5.18 24 Table 5.18 SWOT analysis of the project Strengths Weaknesses - Women know about solid waste classification less - Good facilities, waste collecting than men services in the study area - - Most of people have high classification less than the old education, also high knowledge - about solid waste classification solid waste - The youth care about solid waste People are not willing to participate in classifying A majority of local people have - The awareness and behavior of people are not high awareness in recognizing the uniform importance of solid waste - classification not classify solid waste at home - Local people know the - Lack of volunteer activities and guideline of project importance of their role in staffs classifying solid waste - People prefer to get rewards for classifying solid Local people have trend to follow people around to waste Opportunities Threats - Women are the main people classify at home It - Good conditions to practice classifying solid waste - Easier to educate people to distinguish organic and inorganic waste - Easier to courage people to participate in classifying solid waste - They can directly classify solid waste to reach the effectiveness of the project takes time to teach them how to classify solid waste - It is not good for long term plan to classify solid waste because the youth is the main source of labor to classify solid waste in the future - Hard to change the their passive mind and habit in non-classifying solid waste at home - There are no examples for people to learn how to classify organic and inorganic waste - Lack of combination between staffs, local authorities and local people - People think the benefit from physical rewards are higher than environmental values, so they not want to spend time to classify solid waste (Source: Results calculated by author based on data surveyed, 2016) 25 Strength – Opportunities strategies: According to the SWOT analysis, the advantages of the study area is having good facilities (green – yellow bins) so it is convenient for practicing solid waste classification The high knowledge and awareness of people in solid waste classification is also an advantage to implement the project effectively It is easier to educate, courage people to classify solid waste at home Weakness – Threats strategies: The most weakness is woman – who is the main person classify solid waste at home – has less knowledge about solid waste classification They need more guidance from project staffs to know how to classify solid waste in the right way They are the key factor to decide the effectiveness in implementing the Eco City Plan The second stakeholder is needed to be educated more is the youth The plan cannot implemented for a long time unless the youth care more about solid waste classification, classify solid waste at the current time “Crowd manipulation” is the phenomenon that is happening in the Vietnamese society generally and in Haiphong city specifically It is needed to be solved or the project could be failed 5.7 Recommendations The awareness of people about environmental protection is increasing but it is just at the start of concerning about environmental issues, they have not recognized their own responsibility in this problem A lot of people recognized the importance of solid waste classification but they not have specific action to improve the solid waste treatment in this area There are some solutions that may increase the effectiveness of implementing the Eco City Plan in this area: - Changing the habit and behavior of the local people takes time, so that it needs to have regular environmental propaganda and education about solid waste classification Using all the media to provide information to the people in all genders, all age, occupation, education level 26 - Establishing practice programs for local people, providing more information to educate them how to classify organic and inorganic waste - Tightly coordinating between project staffs, local authorities and local people to implement Eco City Plan in the right way It is encouraged to coordinate with Women union, Youth assembly, the Eldly group to transfer the knowledge and information to the local people easier - Regularly organizing street cleaning movement integrated with the regular activities of the local activities People will actively participate in self-management of local environmental protection; enhance the sense of personal responsibility It interprets the urban civilization, a sense of community responsibility - Adding environmental protection, specifically solid waste classification as one of the criteria to assess the cultural family Rewarding the household which classifies solid waste regularly by certificates or cleaning item such as broom, shovel It will motivate people to participate in the project - Increasing the number of solid waste classified people by appealing volunteers to cleaning and classifying activities in the project implemented area - Combining with the pre-school, primary school to gather and buy inorganic solid waste to reuse of toys, exhibits Using recycled products to educate children the importance of recycling and solid waste classification, either create a profit for people who classify solid waste 27 Figure 5.4 Some recycled products from inorganic solid waste Source: Huynh Gia Hy and Author 28 CONCLUSION The survey and interview generated a number of valuable of findings it can be concluded that even local people have knowledge and awareness about the importance of solid waste classification but they not have the concreted behavior There are differences in knowledge about solid waste classification according to gender, age, occupation and education level Men have more knowledge about this problem than woman The oldest and the youngest group also have more knowledge about classifying solid waste than middle-age group People work for government and the retirement know more about it than people work for other jobs The higher education level, the higher knowledge people have on solid waste classification The awareness is also affected by these factors In general, most of people assess solid waste classification as important, especially the old-age people, middle-age, the government staffs, the retirement, and people who have high education The important level is still assessed as low in the youth, the students, people get low education Local people also recognized their role as the key stakeholder to implement the project successfully The behavior of the respondents shows that they have not prepared for implementing solid waste classification Most of them are confused and not want to waste time in classifying solid waste The thesis has proposed some solutions to solve these problems as establishing environmental propaganda and education about solid waste classification by social media, establishing solid waste practice course for local people, adding solid waste classification as a criteria to assess the cultural family, guiding people to classify solid waste by the guidance from project staffs, local authorities staffs and volunteers, gathering and buying inorganic waste for recycling and educating young people the importance of solid waste classification 29 REFERENCES Omran et al, 2008, Investigating households attitude toward recycling of solid waste in Malaysia: A case study Bùi Mạnh Cường, Nguyễn Ngọc Anh, 2015, “Hỗ trợ phân loại rác” Công ty TNHH Đô thị Mơi trường Hải Phịng, 2015, Dự án Eco City Hồng Lam, Thay đổi thói quen xả, bỏ rác thải, Sở tài ngun mơi trường Hồng Lam, Làm giàu từ rác thải, Sở tài nguyên môi trường Nguyễn Văn Phước, 2009, Giáo trình quản lý xử lý chất thải rắn, Trường Đại học Bách Khoa thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Tổng chi cục thống kê thành phố Hải Phòng, 2016, Số liệu thống kê dân cư thành phố Hải Phòng http://haiphongaz.com/xa-hoi/nhat-ban-giup-hai-phong-xu-ly-rac-bang-cong-nghetien-tien-28991.html http://congdongxanh.biz/bai-viet/hai-phong-duoc-nhat-ban-giup-cong-nghe-phanloai-tai-che-rac-thai-ran-1147.htm http://congdongxanh.biz/bai-viet/phan-loai-rac-thai-nhu-the-nao-482.htm APPENDIX Appendix I: HH Questionnaire Part I Respondent information Interviewer: Date: Location: Respondent information: Name:………………… Ethnic:………… Address: Age: Gender: …………………………………………………………… Educational level: o Be able to read, write o Primary school o Secondary school o High school o College o University o Others: …………………………………………………… Occupation:……………………………………………………… Average income o Less than 2000.000 vnđ o More than 2000.000 vnđ o No income How long have you lived here? ………………………………………………………………………………………… Part II: Awareness of local people on Eco City Plan about classification and reduction of solid waste Have you ever heard about Eco City Plan (Project about classification and reduction of solid waste) which is implementing in this area? (If the answer is “No”, move to Question 4) o Yes o No Do you classify solid waste at your house? (If the answer is “No”, move to Question 4) o Yes o No o Sometimes Who did the solid waste classification in the house? o Grandmother o Grandfather o Husband o Wife o Children o Others: Please answer the question by ticking [x] in the blank that you think it is right Waste type Waste Organic Banana skin, orange skin Plastic bottle Metal can Paper Leftover food Wood Inorganic Which way you use to treat the solid waste in your house? o Public wastebasket o Freely waste o Burry, burn waste o Recycle o Sign up to waste with People’s committee o Release to the lake What you know about solid waste collecting services in your area? o Don’t know o Government and private o People waste collecting o Public works board How you use the public wastebasket (the yellow one and the green one)? o Inorganic waste in the green one, organic waste in the yellow one o Inorganic waste in the yellow one, organic waste in the green one o Whichever convenient Do you usually recycle your households appliances (such as plastic bottles, plastic bags, clothes, )? o Yes o No - (Reason: ) o Sometimes Which level you assess about the solid waste treatment in this area now? o Very good o Good o Normal o Not good o No assessment 10 Is it necessary to classify solid waste? o Yes o No - (Reason: ) 11 Which level you access about the important of participator’s role in solid waste classification and reduction? (Enumerate – with is less important and is the most important) Participator Role Local authorities Volunteers Local people Project staffs Environmental company 12 Do you propose any method to classify and reduce solid waste in your area? Part III Factors that affect to the awareness of local people in solid waste classification Which media you use to get information about Eco City Plan? o Communication media (newspaper, radio, social media, ) o Residential groups o People around, neighborhoods o Project staffs o Others: Does the local area have any solid waste classification practices? o Yes o No o Sometimes Do you usually reflect environmental issues to the local authorities? o Very usually o Usually o Sometimes o Never Which reasons lead to people through garbage to wrong place? (Can choose more than option) Reason Habit Waste money Waste time Lack of knowledge Follow people around Not interested Not reward/ Money Which reason makes people want to classify solid waste? (Can choose more than option) Reason Good facilities provided/ convenient For the future environment/ generations Saves landscape Personal satisfaction/ habit Reduce time to treat solid waste for the environmental company Incentives/ Monetary/ Reward My own awareness about the importance of classifying solid waste/ duty In your area, there are any communication programs about solid waste classification and reduction? o Yes o No o Sometimes If there are communication programs about solid waste classification and reduction in your area, are you willing to participate in these programs? o Yes o No – (Reason: ) Appendix II: Check list for staffs - What is your job? What is your position in the office? - What is your responsible? - What you know about Eco City Plan? - How is the project work in the area? Is it effective? - How about the status of solid waste in this area? - How about the awareness of local people? - Do people implement the plan as expectation? - Do you propose any solutions to raise the awareness of local people on solid waste classification and reduction? Appendix III: Check list for group discussion - Can you tell me about your basic information? (address, gender, age, income, education level, occupation) - What you know about the Eco City Plan? Does it implement effectively? - Do you know about waste solid classification? Do you think it is important? - In your opinion, whose participation is the most important to implement the project effectively? Why? - Which level you rate the general awareness of people living in the area under the project implement? - Which factors affect to the awareness of people in your point of view? - Do you propose any solutions to raise the awareness of local people on solid waste classification and reduction? Appendix IV Figures in the fieldtrip Figure 8.1 The public bins (recycling bins) Figure 8.2 The waste collecting services of the environmental company Figure 8.3 Interviewing staff and local people ... support effectively implementation of Eco City Plan on solid waste classification in Hai Phong city 2.2 Specific objectives - To assess awareness of local people on Eco City Plan on solid waste classification. .. district, Hai Phong city; - To propose solutions to raise awareness of local people on Eco City Planand effectively implement the Eco City Plan on solid waste classification in Hai Phong city 3... waste classification in Hai Phong city by assessing the awareness of local people on solid waste, determining factors that affect to awareness of local people on solid waste and proposing solutions