Waste Segregation at Source and Separately Collection - The Inadequacy in Implementation in Vietnam

Hoi An city is a dynamic tourism city in Vietnam which had received the certificate of World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The boom in tourism activities led to problems for the solid waste management system. Solid waste collection activities account for the largest proportion of expenses on solid waste management. Optimization of the present solid waste collection system of Hoi An city is an urgent mission. This research is an effort to describe the current solid waste collection system of Hoi An city with the support of GIS and GPS. The results denoted Thursday, Friday, and Saturday accounted for the most enormous workload with 36, 34, and 40 trips. The total working time for these days were 103.86, 96.12, and 109.6 h while the total traveled distances were 733.76, 719.21, and 848.12 km. The complexity of solid waste collection routes, frequencies of solid waste collection, and coverage of solid waste collection activities decreased from urban areas to rural areas. Collection of waste accounted for the largest amount of time in solid waste collection activities. The low rate of waste separation at source, illegal solid waste collection, extreme weather, misbehaviours of drivers and workers, as well as the limitation in waste treatment facilities were the problems and challenges of the solid waste collection system in Hoi An city.