Establish national standards for the collection, transportation and treatment of technological waste

On the afternoon of October 28, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the Report of the Supervisory Delegation and the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on the results of the thematic supervision of "the implementation of policies and laws on environmental protection since the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 took effect".

National Assembly delegate of Quang Ninh province Nguyen Thi Thu Ha speaks. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Delegates highly agreed with the National Assembly 's Supreme Supervision report; at the same time acknowledged and appreciated the great efforts of the Government, ministries, branches and local authorities in implementing policies and laws on environmental protection since the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 took effect.

The rapid institutionalization of the Party and State's policies on resource management, environmental protection, climate change response and circular economic development has brought about many positive changes. The system of legal documents, standards and technical regulations has been gradually improved; along with that, the role of the community, businesses and people in environmental protection has been increasingly enhanced.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (Quang Ninh) said that the environment is still one of the biggest challenges of sustainable development, which requires us to improve environmental protection work and perfect mechanisms and policies in the coming period.

According to the delegates, currently, the process of appraising Environmental Impact Assessments and granting Environmental Licenses is still lengthy and requires many adjustments due to the lack of technical information, technology and basic design plans at the time of appraisal. Some procedures are still done manually and on paper, not meeting the requirements of digitalization and online public services throughout the process. In addition, the criteria for determining licensing authority still overlap between the Ministry and Provincial levels, causing confusion in implementation.

Therefore, delegates recommended that it is necessary to improve the environmental impact assessment process in the direction of ensuring quality, sufficient technical and technological information before appraisal, and at the same time supplement the mechanism of shortened, online appraisal of the entire process for low-risk projects to shorten time and costs. It is necessary to clearly stipulate the authority, basis for transition and criteria for decentralization of environmental licensing, ensuring consistency and avoiding overlap.

Currently, many industrial park auxiliary areas have to invest in separate wastewater treatment systems, causing waste and difficulty in management. Meanwhile, industrial parks, clusters or production, business and service areas close to each other are not allowed to share the centralized wastewater treatment system even though there is excess capacity. Delegates said that it is necessary to add a flexible mechanism to allow common connection to the centralized wastewater treatment system between industrial parks, clusters or neighboring facilities with suitable technical conditions. At the same time, it is necessary to specify conditions to ensure safety, stability and long-term of the connection plan, avoid coping, ensure investment efficiency and centralized environmental management.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Hue (Thai Nguyen) said that technological waste and solar batteries are emerging as a serious challenge to the global environment. The strong development of science and technology has led to a large amount of expired electronic devices, components and solar panels, creating a source of waste containing many heavy metals and toxic chemicals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, arsenic... that can seep into soil and water, causing serious pollution and affecting health (cancer, neurological disorders, infertility...).

In fact, every year the world produces tens of millions of tons of electronic waste, but only a small portion is recycled safely (according to the United Nations, in 2022, the world produced about 62 million tons of electronic waste, but only 17% was recycled properly); in Vietnam, most of it is still processed manually or buried, while the collection system, recycling technology and legal regulations are still lacking in synchronization.

The delegate said that currently in our country there are 8 factories producing solar panels (solar cells), about more than 130 large-scale solar power plant projects are in operation and the amount of discarded solar panels is expected to increase from 9 thousand tons in 2030 to 128 thousand tons in 2045. Electronic waste and discarded batteries from vehicles are regulated as hazardous waste. In the future, when the amount of this waste is generated more, there will be a requirement for treatment and recycling of this special type of waste.

According to the report of the Monitoring Team, the risks of specific waste have been considered and response plans have been prepared such as: The Law on Environmental Protection 2020 and its implementing documents have a number of regulations to manage specific types of waste. Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP has stipulated specific types of waste, including electronic waste, waste electric vehicle batteries, waste solar panels in the list of products and packaging that must be recycled with mandatory recycling rates and recycling specifications. Accordingly, manufacturers are responsible for collecting, processing or contributing to the recycling of waste. However, in reality, the collection and treatment of electronic waste and energy batteries still depends a lot on infrastructure, treatment sanctions and people's sense of responsibility.

To solve this problem, delegate Hue suggested that in addition to regulations requiring manufacturers and importers to collect and recycle products at the end of their life cycle, it is necessary to establish national standards for the collection, transportation and treatment of technological waste and solar batteries; and encourage a circular economy: reusing components and materials, reducing the exploitation of raw resources.

In addition, building centralized treatment plants: applying safe mechanical - thermal - chemical technology instead of manual treatment; researching new generation batteries: perovskite batteries or organic batteries that are easy to recycle, low in heavy metals; propagating to people and businesses not to litter electronic waste and electronic batteries but to participate in collection programs; encouraging the model of "exchanging electronic waste for gifts", centralized collection at supermarkets and schools; supporting green businesses with initiatives to treat and recycle technological waste.

National Assembly delegate of Tuyen Quang province Ma Thi Thuy speaks. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Providing a solution, delegate Ma Thi Thuy (Tuyen Quang) proposed that the National Assembly direct the review and amendment of regulations on the roadmap for applying the policy on domestic solid waste management (according to Clause 7, Article 79) to ensure feasibility, especially for mountainous areas. Specifically, it is necessary to simplify administrative procedures, such as environmental licensing procedures for small projects. At the same time, consider adjusting the authority to grant environmental licenses from the provincial People's Committee to the Chairman of the provincial People's Committee or specialized agencies to speed up progress and also in line with the current decentralization.

The Government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment should soon issue specific technical guidelines for incident response projects, and consider support mechanisms and deductions for investment costs for automatic monitoring stations...

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/thiet-lap-tieu-chuan-quoc-gia-cho-viec-thu-gom-van-chuyen-va-xu-ly-rac-thai-cong-nghe-20251028171237824.htm