Laws and Regulations

Ministry 

Authority 

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment 

Decree No. 35/2025/NĐ-CP provides regulations on the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE), including waste and hazardous waste management, in compliance with the Law on Government Organization and the Law on Environmental Protection 2020. 

Key Authorities of MAE in Waste and Hazardous Waste Management Direction:

a. Policy Development and Legal Document Issuance 

MAE is mandated to draft and submit legal documents and to issue ministerial-level regulatory instruments (e.g., circulars), national technical standards/QCVNs and regulation.

b. Strategic Planning and Approval 

MAE guides the mainstreaming of environmental protection in national plans; develops strategies, programs and plans to be approved by the Government or Prime Minister; and approves certain strategies where delegated.

 c. State Management Functions 

MAE provides nationwide guidance, conducts supervision and inspection—both at national level and through cross-sector oversight—and organizes implementation of pollution source control and waste management policies. 

 d. Hazardous Waste Management 

MAE provides the legal, technical and administrative framework for hazardous waste management through guidance, technology criteria, environmental permitting and permit-based compliance controls. In relation to EPR, MAE administers the implementation of producer and importer obligations for designated product and packaging streams. 

 e. Enforcement and Monitoring 

MAE is authorized to organize environmental statistics and databases, promote digitization for monitoring/traceability, and to conduct inspection and enforcement actions in coordination with competent authorities. MAE can also sanction administrative violations related to waste and hazardous waste under the Government’s decree on environmental administrative penalties.  

While MAE leads and coordinates solid waste management at the national level, the Department of Environment serves as the focal technical and implementation unit within the Ministry for waste management and EPR-related implementation. This is reflected in the post-restructuring institutional arrangement, under which the former Pollution Control Department leadership was transitioned into the Department of Environment.

Within MAE, the Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands (VASI) is the appropriate focal agency for marine plastic litter management. Under its assigned functions, VASI leads and coordinates, and provides guidance, monitoring, inspection and follow-up for, the implementation of the National Action Plan on Marine Plastic Litter Management to 2030 (issued under Decision No. 1746/QD-TTg). Its responsibilities also include conducting surveys, research and assessments on the status of marine plastic litter; preparing status reports on marine plastic litter; coordinating international cooperation on marine plastic litter; and, more broadly, guiding and supervising the management of waste from activities at sea, coastal zones and islands.

Ministry of Construction 

The Ministry of Construction (MOC) is responsible in managing construction and demolition waste (CDW), urban waste management and related environmental infrastructure, as stipulated in Decree No. 33/2025/NĐ-CP, although their waste-related mandate should be understood as a sector-specific and technical one rather than as the primary nationwide authority for general solid waste management.

Key Authorities of MOC in Waste Management Direction:

a. Policy Formulation and Legal Regulation 

MOC develops and submits, or promulgates within its competence, legal instruments, technical regulations, standards and guidance in the fields of urban development, technical infrastructure, construction activities and building materials that are relevant to solid waste infrastructure and the use of waste in construction.

b. Planning and Development Management 

MOC formulates national mechanisms, policies and infrastructure-development directions in the areas of urban development and technical infrastructure; guides implementation; and appraises, submits for approval, or approves matters.

c. Technical Standards and Infrastructure Management 

MOC issues and updates construction-sector technical regulations, guidance and standards for technical infrastructure works, including solid-waste collection and treatment works, as well as on the use of ordinary industrial solid waste as inputs for building materials.

d. Construction Waste and Demolition Waste Management 

The current legal framework does not support framing MOC as the primary nationwide operational regulator of construction and demolition waste (CDW) separation, collection, transport, treatment and disposal. Those matters are principally governed by environmental law and by provincial regulations issued and implemented by provincial-level People’s Committees. MOC’s role is more accurately framed as: (i) setting construction- and infrastructure-related technical standards; (ii) promoting the reuse and recycling of waste and secondary materials in construction; and (iii) managing the building-materials and technical-infrastructure aspects of circularity in the construction sector. 

e. Inspection, Supervision, and Compliance Monitoring 

MOC may inspect, supervise and handle, or recommend handling of, violations within the sectors falling under its construction, urban development, technical infrastructure and building-materials remit. However, waste-management violations as such are primarily governed by the environmental legal framework, with provincial authorities bearing direct responsibility for local environmental enforcement and compliance oversight.  

Ministry of Health 

Ministry of Health’s (MOH) current legal mandate is covering healthcare-waste management within healthcare premises, infection control, healthcare-environmental protection, and the public-health impacts of environmental pollution and incidents, as stipulated in Decree No. 42/2025/NĐ-CP and in accordance with the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 and its implementing regulations.

Key Authorities of MOH in Medical Solid Waste Management:

a. Policy Formulation and Legal Regulation 

MOH develops and issues, or submits for promulgation, legal and professional instruments on medical waste management within healthcare premises, healthcare-environmental protection, and the health dimension of pollution control. 

b. Technical Guidelines and Safety Regulations 

MOH has authority to issue and organize implementation of technical and professional requirements on waste segregation, collection, storage and internal management of healthcare waste within healthcare premises, together with infection-control and occupational-health measures relevant to waste handling in medical establishments. 

c. Planning and Management of Medical Waste Systems 

MOH guides and organizes healthcare-waste management within the healthcare system rather than as the authority approving a separate nationwide medical-waste infrastructure plan. At facility level, healthcare establishments must prepare healthcare-waste management plans; at provincial level, health authorities (DOH) guide facilities and may propose budget allocation for investment, upgrading and operation of healthcare-waste treatment systems within establishments under their management. At the same time, provincial-level People’s Committees are expressly assigned responsibility for regulating the collection, transport and treatment of medical solid waste in accordance with local conditions. 

d. Health and Environmental Safety Management 

MOH is tasked with directing and guiding the assessment of the scope and severity of environmental impacts on human health, preventing and responding to environmental incidents caused by dangerous infectious diseases, and implementing measures to limit adverse health impacts. 

e. Inspection, Supervision, and Compliance Monitoring 

MOH has sectoral inspection and supervision powers within the fields under its state-management remit, including the organization and inspection of compliance with healthcare-waste management rules within healthcare establishments. The current legal basis supports training, dissemination, assignment of responsible personnel, record-keeping and reporting obligations for healthcare-waste management, but does not clearly establish a standalone nationwide certification regime specifically for waste-management staff in medical establishments. 

Ministry of Industry and Trade 

Ministry of Industry and Trade’s (MOIT) waste-related mandate is a sector-specific and technical one—centred on environmental protection in the industry and trade sector, development of the environmental industry, industrial cluster management, chemical management, dangerous goods transport within its statutory remit, and industrial technical safety, as mandated under Decree No. 40/2025/NĐ-CP. 

Key Authorities of MOIT in Industrial Waste Management:

a. Policy Development and Regulation 

MOIT develops and submits, or promulgates within its competence, legal instruments, technical regulations, standards and guidance in environmental protection in industry, environmental industry, industrial clusters, chemicals and industrial technical safety. 

b. Management of Industrial Waste Systems 

MOIT has an important role in nationwide policy, reporting, database development, inspection and evaluation for industrial clusters. Industrial waste collection, storage, transport and treatment systems in factories or industrial zones are implemented locally by provincial-level People’s Committees, provincial Departments of Industry and Trade, and cluster infrastructure investors, while environmental requirements are governed by the Law on Environmental Protection and related environmental procedures. 

c. Promotion of Environment-friendly Industry 

MOIT has an authority in promoting environmental industry development and greener industrial transition than in directly regulating industrial solid waste itself. In particular, MOIT is assigned to build and submit the national programme on environmental industry development together with other ministries and local authorities. More broadly, circular economy content must be integrated into sectoral strategies, plans and programmes, and production establishments are themselves required by law to reduce resource use, reduce waste and improve reuse and recycling. 

d. Chemicals, Dangerous Goods and Industrial Environmental Incident Prevention 

MOIT has sectoral authority over chemicals and industrial dangerous goods within its statutory remit and has specific responsibilities for technical guidance and national-level response coordination in respect of environmental incidents caused by leaks or releases of toxic chemicals in the industrial sector. Vietnamese eco-label certification, by contrast, is governed under the environmental legal framework and is certified by the environmental ministry rather than MOIT. 

e. Inspection, Monitoring, and Enforcement 

MOIT is empowered to inspect and supervise compliance with regulations on industrial waste management and environmental protection in industry. It handles violations and policy enforcement.