Municipal solid waste system of a tourism destination toward circular economy – Understanding plastic leakage into water system

Plastic pollution is becoming urgent all over the world, which linear economy has also exacerbated plastic issues. Transition from traditional economic models to circular economy — where material is circulated within processes such as maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting — is expected as solution for not only plastic pollution but also issues of linear economy. Municipal solid waste management system plays an essential role in this transition, particularly practices for management of material flows and enhancement of material circulation. This study applied waste flow diagram (WFD) and material flow analysis (MFA) to clarify municipal solid waste flow, recyclable waste flow, and mechanism of plastic leakage in a tourism destination of a developing country in Southeast Asia — Hoi An city, Vietnam. With support of geographic information system and remote sensing techniques, popular methods in ‘small q’ qualitative research — interview and observation — were applied to collect data for WFD and MFA. Results denoted that average amount of municipal solid waste generation (MSWG) was around 1.19 kg/cap/day (436 kg/cap/year), being between those of upper middle income countries and high income countries. Majority of municipal solid waste was collected by formal environmental service, capturing approximately 39,743 tonnes/year of MSWG (90.62% of total MSWG), however, 27 tonnes/year of plastic was leaked from collection services. Importantly, largest proportions of unmanaged plastic waste sources were from uncollected plastic waste (77.48%) and collection service (18.38%). Reversed logistic system was predominantly operated by informal sectors, where itinerant buyers and waste pickers contributed considerably by collecting 1,727 tonnes/year (59.45% of total recovered recyclable waste) of recyclable waste. Due to severe weather conditions and natural disasters, Cam Ha treatment facility was responsible for 4 tonnes/year of plastic leakage. Promoting waste separation at source with strict inspection, upgrading collection and transportation system, integration of informal sector, and regional planning for municipal solid waste management were proposed for controlling plastic leakage and heading to circular economy.