Estimation of the Solid Waste Generation and Recycling Potential of the Hotel Sector: A Case Study in Hue City, Vietnam

This study examined the solid waste generation and recycling potential of the hotel sector in Hue City, Vietnam. The authors conducted waste measurement, waste composition, and questionnaire surveys for 45 target hotels over ten consecutive days. The waste generation rates (WGRs) by rooms, beds, guests, and workers were assessed by hotel class using the following three waste categories, considering informal waste collection: general waste (GW), separated recyclables (SRe), and separated food residue (SFR). The 5-star hotels exhibited the highest WGR per room at 1.61 kg/room/day, while 1-star hotels exhibited the lowest per-room WGR (0.39 kg/room/day). Spearman Rank correlation test revealed that hotel class and per-room, per-bed, and per-guest WGRs were significantly positively correlated (p < 0.01). The major components of GW were food waste (40.9% to 57.4%), paper (10.1% to 20.3%), and plastic (10.7% to 15.5%). The recycling and composting potentials remaining in the GW were 19.3% to 38.5% and 38.0% to 57.9%, respectively. Based on the WGRs and waste composition determined in this study, the estimated total amount of waste generated was 6.88 tons/day (6.26 to 7.62 tons/day, 95% CI), of which 4.37 (64%), 2.13 (31%), and 0.38 tons/day (6%) were GW, SFR, and SRe, respectively. The recycling and composting potentials remaining in GW were 0.94 (13%) and 2.57 tons/day (37%), respectively. High-class hotels should be considered as the highest priority targets for a “reduce, reuse, recycle” (3R) promotion campaign in the future, with estimated recycling and composting potentials of 0.27 (4%) and 1.10 tons/day (16%), respectively.