The Stakeholders’ workshop on Organic Waste Management Plan for Ho Chi Minh City was organized in coordination and partnership with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE) of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC), the Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (AIT RRCAP). The workshop was organized on 13-15 May 2015 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  The objectives of the workshop were to: i) raise awareness of stakeholders on organic waste management and identify the role of appropriate technologies and public-private partnerships to implement 3R (reduce, recycle and reuse) strategy for organic waste management; ii) review the draft Organic Waste Management Plan of HCMC; build capacity of DONRE staff and other HCMC stakeholders development of comprehensive organic waste management plan; and iii) discuss the next steps on the CCAC-MSW initiative implementation-ready projects/feasibility study.

The session was opened by Mr. Nguyen Van Phuoc, Vice Director of DONRE, HCMC, Vietnam. He pointed out the support of DONRE to the plan and its implementation. Dr. Mushtaq Memon, Programme Officer, UNEP IETC welcomed the participants and expressed his appreciation to DONRE Ho Chi Minh City for supporting the organization of the workshop. Dr. Jonathan Shaw, Deputy Director, AIT RRCAP highlighted on the draft organic waste management plan for HCMC, pointing out that through Ho Chi Minh City’s ownership of the plan, taking into consideration the additional data and information, identification of environmentally sound technologies as well as public private partnerships across the waste management chain the additional data and information, identification of environmentally sound technologies as well as public private partnerships across the waste management chain. Mr. Guilberto Borongan, Programme Specialist, AIT RRCAP presented the draft Comprehensive Organic Waste Management Plan in HCMC.

He also enumerated considerations in selecting the best options with criteria for the decision making process including financial/economic, environmental, technical, social/health, political and legal. Mr. Kenji Shiraishi, Managing Director of Global Environment Corporation GEC presented on anaerobic digestion of organic waste for biogas generation including its potential and challenges in HCMC. He described one of the promising technological options for reducing SLCPs from waste in HCMC. He outlined a model project that is being developed in Binh Dien Wholesale Market, opportunities for expanding projects of this kind across HCMC and the overview of the project in HCMC. Ms. Milag San Jose- Ballesteros, C40 Regional Director for Southeast Asia and Oceania presented the C40 Cities-Waste Initiative and CCAC Collaborations.