This research is aiming to study livelihood resources and determinants of income diversification of itinerant scrap buyers in the Mekong River Delta (MRD), as well as their role in solid waste management. The study used data collected by directly interviewing 128 respondents who are itinerant scrap buyers in 5 provinces in the MRD, including Can Tho, Soc Trang, An Giang, Long An, and Ca Mau. The descriptive statistical method is employed to analyze the situation, Ordinary Least Square (OLS) models to determine the determinants of income diversification and total household income. The research theory applied in this study is based on the sustainable livelihood analysis framework developed by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) (2000), including human resources, physical resources, natural resources, financial resources, and social resources. Results show that more than 60% of itinerant scrap buyers are female and have a wide range of ages. In which, 25% of them work on average more than 7.3 hours/day, equivalent to 6.8 days/week, and 28 days/month with an average income of US$4.26/day (VND99,545), equivalent to US$124.06/month (VND2,896,821). Interestingly, this income is higher than the urban near-poor level regulated by the Vietnam government. The results of the OLS regression model show that the determinants of total households’ income are health status, gender, urban location type 1, the amount of potential savings, and informal credit participation. Meanwhile, variables such as health status, urban location, the amount of potential savings, and informal credit participation have the effect of diversifying farm household income. Thus, if the informal waste recycling sector is supported and regulated by proper management from the government, it will not only contribute to diversifying incomes for poor households but also help to diversify poor households’ income, especially income for women, which is vulnerable and also lower than male income in the MRD.