Tran Thi Truc Minh[2], Pham Cao Tiep[3], and Phan Thanh Tuyen[4]
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| Recycling packaging products at Truong Thinh Packaging Production Co., Ltd., Ninh Binh province__Photo: VNA |
Policies on waste recycling toward circular economy under the Environmental Protection Laws of 1993, 2005 and 2014
According to the 1993 Law on Environment Protection (the 1993 Law), the term “making full use of wastes” in its Article 11 gave rise to waste-recycling activities, which were then not prescribed by law but could be construed as “using up all valuable things, leaving no waste” as defined in Vietnamese dictionaries[5]. In a broader sense, this means that the State encouraged and created conditions for organizations and individuals to use and rationally exploit the environmental components, covering the making full use of wastes similar to the purpose of recycling activities. This is also the way of restricting wastes. More than 30 years earlier, in 1993, the State attached importance to recycling activities which were included in the “encouraging and facilitating” policies under Article 11 of the 1993 Law.
Yet, under the 2005 Law on Environment Protection (the 2005 Law), the term “recycling” appeared for the first time in Article 3.12, stating: “Waste management means activities of sorting, collecting, transporting, reducing, reusing, recycling, treating, destroying and discarding wastes”. This constitutes the State’s environmental protection policy with environmental protection activities being promoted, and it can be said that recycling is among basic waste treatment activities. With such significance, the 2005 Law was concretized into fundamental policies below.
First, waste-recycling activities must be carried out via an appropriate process. Organizations and individuals engaged in waste-generating activities must carry out at-source waste classification suitable for recycling purpose[6]. Meanwhile, organizations and individuals conducting production, business and service activities are obliged to recover expired or discarded products such as batteries, machine oils, lubricants, etc.[7] In addition, wastes will be treated by technical and technological solutions to reduce, eliminate or destroy harmful or useless components. It can be said that the extended producer responsibility has begun to exist since then.
Second, recycling activities must involve different subjects in society. Thereby, the State introduces incentives and other regulations for waste-recycling organizations and individuals such as tax incentives, support in terms of capital and land[8]. For their part, organizations and individuals engaged in waste-generating activities are liable to reduce, recycle and reuse the wastes in order to minimize the volume of wastes to be destroyed or discarded.”[9]
After a period of enforcement, the 2005 Law reveals certain limitations in waste management activities until these activities were included in Chapter IV of the 2014 Law on Environment Protection (the 2014 Law) with 19 articles and clauses. Together, the policies on waste recycling witnessed certain changes.
Firstly, waste-recycling activities must comply with the general principles put forth in the 2005 Law for waste management activities in general and waste-recycling activities in particular, for instance, the sorting of wastes for recycling, the process of treating wastes for recycling and the subjects responsible for the recycling, especially “the extended producer responsibility”.
Secondly, waste-recycling activities must be carried out comprehensively and synchronously. Especially, waste management activities in general and waste-recycling activities in particular were set to constitute the environmental industry[10]. This is one among the improvements of the 2014 Law, demonstrating the social concern about waste recycling.
Thirdly, waste-recycling activities under the 2014 Law were expanded to many domains with different waste sorts being managed differently. Especially, owners of production, business and service establishments, organizations, households and individuals that generate normal solid wastes have to reuse and recycle, recover energy from, and treat, such wastes[11].
In short, under the 1993, 2005 and 2014 versions of the Law on Environment Protection, waste-recycling activities has been improved, expanded to many domains, and received more attention from agencies, organizations and individuals in the entire society. However, the guiding texts only stopped short at identifying discarded products and packaging subject to collection, recycling and treatment. They merely defined the producers’ responsibility to set up waste-gathering facilities and the consumers’ responsibility after discarding the wastes, but failed to specify the compulsory ratio of wastes to be collected for recycling and to put forth a mechanism for effectively operating the waste treatment system.[12]
Policies on waste recycling toward circular economy under the 2020 Law and guiding text
The 2020 Law on Environment Protection (the 2020 Law) contains breakthrough points, encouraging recycling and reuse activities for wastes in general in order to fully tap the resource values of wastes. It clearly explains the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in Article 54 and the circular economy model in Article 5.11. Specifically, Article 5.11 states: “Organizations and individuals engaged in production/import of products and packaging with recycling value must recycle such products and packaging according to the compulsory ratios and standards, excluding those for export or temporary import for re-export, or those produced or imported for research, study or testing purposes”. It also requires “the inclusion of models of circular economy and green economy in socio-economic development strategies, master plans, plans, programs, schemes and projects”.
In addition, under Article 88 of Government Decree 08/2022/ND-CP (Decree 08), the guiding text of the 2020 Law, the National Council for Extended Producer Responsibility is set up to manage and oversee EPR performance of requiring producers and importers to collect for recycling products and packaging after they are used according to compulsory ratios and standards. Meanwhile, producers and importers of hard-to-recycle products and packaging must pay money into the Vietnam Environment Protection Fund to support domestic solid waste treatment activities.
At the same time, to enhance the responsibility of producers and importers of certain types of wastes that are highly harmful to the environment, Article 55 of the 2020 Law provides that organizations and individuals producing/importing products and packaging containing toxic substances that are hard to recycle or cause difficulties to collection and treatment must make financial contributions to the Vietnam Environment Protection Fund, which are determined based on the volume or quantity of products or packaging to support the following activities: (i) collecting, transporting or treating domestic solid wastes; (ii) carrying out technical and technological research and development and innovations for domestic solid waste treatment; and (iii) collecting, transporting and treating pesticide containers.
So, the 2020 Law and Decree 08 have helped basically redress the inadequacies in the previous laws on environmental protection, thus bringing about high efficiency in reducing the volume of generated wastes in general and plastic waste in particular. The 2020 Law contains breakthrough provisions to improve the sorting, collection and treatment of domestic wastes.[13] Meanwhile, Article 56.3 of Decree 08 provides the order of priority for application of waste management solutions, including :(i) reuse of the discarded products; (ii) repair, maintenance or upgrading; (iii) making full use of components and spare parts; (iv) recycling; (v) waste treatment in combination with energy recovery; and (vi) waste burial.
So, the solutions in this order priority conform with the spirit of circular economy, namely reducing the exploitation and use of natural resources; reducing wastes and prolonging the lifecycle of products.
Inadequacies in Vietnam’s legislation on recycling toward circular economy
It can be seen that the environment protection laws, even the 2020 Law, have not yet explained the term “recycling”.[14]
Moreover, the policy on recycling toward a circular economy has not resulted in efficiency as expected. The order of priority for application of waste management solutions constitutes the general requirement for management of solid wastes while it is not always suitable as solid wastes are classified into different types, e.g., common solid wastes and hazardous solid wastes. The 2020 Law also classifies solid wastes into domestic solid wastes, common industrial solid wastes, medical solid wastes, and hazardous solid wastes. In fact, peculiar solid wastes require separate regulations on the order of priority of management measures. Even in a sector, the circular economy strategy may vary, depending on business forms and products.[15] Therefore, proper circular measures are needed for each process in the value chains based on their business models. In other words, different sectors require different strategies and product designs based on their lifecycles.
Additionally, the formulation of criteria, roadmap and mechanisms to promote the development of the model of a recycling-based society toward developing the circular economy still meets with certain difficulties.
The 2020 Law has failed to form a set of specific criteria for measuring the circular extent in economic activities while Article 138.1.a of Decree 08 only provided “the general criteria on circular economy”.
Meanwhile, Article 139 of Decree 08 says that the action plans on circular economy include the national action plan; provincial-level action plans; and action plans of sectors and products. These action plans formulate viewpoints, general objectives, and specific goals and targets for realization of the circular economy during the 10-year national action plan. In the authors’ view, the 10-year cycle is too long for changes and adaptation to political, economic and social conditions, especially in the circular economy environment.
Regarding the incentive mechanism, although Vietnam’s environmental legislation sets mechanisms to promote the realization of circular economy for production, business and service establishments, but a recent survey in taxation showed more than half (53-55 percent) of enterprises held that legal provisions lack economic incentives and the current tax collection regimes fail to encourage the development of circular economy[16].
Recommendations for improvement of waste-recycling activities toward circular economy
The concept “recycling” should be clarified to create the legal mechanism for direct handling of social relations related to the building of a recycling-based society. The environment protection legislation should interpret the term “recycling” as the process of applying technological and technical solutions to carry out various activities, including:
(i) Using natural resources which can be utilized as products and using the whole or part of natural resources which can be utilized as components or parts of products;
(ii) Using the whole or part of natural resources which can be utilized as raw materials; and,
(iii) Using things that are the whole or part of utilizable and available natural resources to collect heat.
It is also necessary to clearly design the order of priority for waste treatment. Therefore, Article 56.3 of Decree 08 should be supplemented as follows: “For a number of discarded products and solid wastes subject to separate regulations on the order of priority of solutions, such separate regulations shall prevail”.
One more solution is the need to finalize criteria, roadmap and incentive mechanisms for development of the model of a recycling-based society toward circular economy. The formulation of a basic plan is a must-have task in building this model. The basic plan must outline the following principal contents:
The basic principles include: the founding principle; the coordination principle; the principle of restricting raw materials and similar products to become wastes; and the principle on recycling and discarding of recyclable natural resources.
Moreover, attention should be paid to the formation of basic policies in establishing the model of a recycling-based society toward circular economy. To make it clearer, such policies must conform to the national and provincial-level action plans as well as action plans of sectors and products. These policies must also conform to the political, economic and social situation, particularly the environment of Vietnam. Finally, they must go through inspection, evaluation and adjustment in a reasonable cycle. These policies must balance two key elements of “economy” and “environment”.
Regarding the responsibilities of related subjects, under the 2020 Law, the building of a circular economy rests with the entire society. Hence, when establishing the model of a recycling-based society, all subjects must participate with appropriate actions. If the State and local administrations act as policymakers, enterprises and citizens are policy implementers. Especially, the establishment of a recycling-based society should be carried out with necessary measures on the basis of reasonable division of roles among the State, local administrations, enterprises and citizens with expenses being properly and equally shared among them.-
The Vietnamese version of this article was published on the Vietnamese Journal of Legal Sciences, issue 04(188)/2025.
[2] Faculty of Commercial Law, Ho Chi Minh City University of Law.
[3] Faculty of Administrative Law and State, Ho Chi Minh City University of Law.
[4] Law Institute, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia.
[5] Hoang Phe, Vietnamese Dictionary, Da Nang Publishing House, 2003, p. 900.
[6] Article 68.1 of the 2005 Law.
[7] Article 67.1 of the 2005 Law.
[8] Clauses 2 and 3, Article 68 of the 2005 Law.
[9] Article 66.1 of the 2005 Law.
[10] Article 153 of the 2014 Law.
[11] Article 97 of the 2014 Law.
[12] Nguyen Thi: Enquiring into the regulations on the responsibility to recycle and treat discarded products and packages of organizations and individuals engaged in production and import activities, https://vupac.monre.gov.vn/linh-vuc-moi-truong/3384/tim-hieu-quy-dinh-ve-trach-nhiem-tai-che-xu-ly-san-pham-bao-bi-thai-bo-cua-to-chuc-ca-nhan-san-xuat-.
[13] Pham Thi Gam: New provisions in the 2020 Law on Environment Protection regarding the handling of plastic waste, Environment Review, 2025, http://tapchimoitruong.vn/chuyen-muc-3/quy-dinh-moi-truong-trong-luat-bao-ve-moi-truong-nam-2020-nham-giai-quyet-van-de-rac-thai-nhua-25756.
[14] Clauses 4,5 and 6 of the 2020 Law only provide the definitions of reuse, re-generation and heat recovery, respectively.
[15] Ana Birliga Sutherland: “Why your circular business may not be as sustainable as you think”, Circle economy, 2021, https//www.circle-economy.com/blogs/why-your-circular-business-may-not-be-as-sustainable-as-you-think.
[16] Tran Minh Thien: Developing the circular economy in Vietnam’s law, experiences of a number of countries and orientations for improvement. Graduation thesis for law bachelor, Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, 2023, p.30.
