According to a representative from the municipal Department of Construction, small trucks with mechanical lifting and compacting devices will take over their role.

Workers using carts to collect garbage on the streets. The city is planning to phase out these carts by 2012.

Some of the new trucks can already be seen on the streets at night.

The 600 existing carts in the city’s four districts, Hoan Kiem, Dong Da, Ba Dinh and Hai Ba Trung, will be reduced by half next year and totally removed by 2012.

Vu Cuong, head of the Urban and Environment Company’s (URENCO) Technology Department, said most of streets in the city were small, so large rubbish trucks could not be used.

In addition, many residents failed to throw their garbage out in time - in accordance with the regulations. Rubbish collection, therefore, had to often be repeated throughout the day to keep the city clean.

Cuong said it was difficult to remove all the old carts at once because of disposal logistics. However, they could be quickly replaced in new urban areas which are close to rubbish dumps.

URENCO has gradually replaced rubbish carts with plastic rubbish bins in some areas around the city to seed up rubbish collection and disposal. Truck workers later empty them.

Cuong said about 3,000 green and yellow public bins with capacities ranging from 90 to 240 litres had been set up in some larger streets. He added that this method was cheaper than using the old carts.

The People’s Committee has drafted a list of penalties for those breaking garbage collection regulations.

People leaving their waste in the wrong places will be fined VND100,000-300,000 (US$5.5-17); those leaving waste from building sites for collection can be fined up to VND5-10 million ($275-600).

Contractors who illegally dump rubbish along roadsides or other inappropriate public places can be fined VND10-15 million ($600-833).

The new regulation is set to be implemented next month.