Public awareness of and participation in municipal solid waste management in urban areas of the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam

Abstract

This chapter assesses community participation in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, by calculating willingness to pay for a source-separated municipal solid waste (MSW) improvement program. The level of urbanization was used to stratify the data, while both contingent valuation methodology (CVM) and choice experiments (CE) were employed to determine the willingness-to-pay (WTP) values and cross-validate the results. Welfare benefits examined in both approaches suggest that MSW improvement programs can be successfully implemented in developing countries. The findings indicate that community participation may be a viable option for resolving environmental issues associated with MSW management. The findings also show that households care about various attributes related to environmental protection such as recycled, organic, and residual properties. Interestingly, households in less developed areas are more eager to participate and pay a higher price for the improvement program which may be logical, but challenging to implement. Given that both approaches generated consistent values future research employing these methodologies should be conducted to provide information to policymakers on the most effective implementation pathways.