Battery Disposal
From: Jason Morris-Jung
Date: Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 8:59 PM
This is a question for practical information. Amid all of Vietnam's informal recycling does anyone know if there is any recycling of batteries or places for their relatively safely disposal? In Hanoi or wherever.
Thank you,
jason morris-jung
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From: Dana Doan
Date: Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 9:49 PM
Hi Jason,
There is a fairly large project coming along to recycle lead batteries in HCMC. The company that is implementing this project is Gratia Recycling (http://gratiarecycling.com/). The project has been evaluated favorably by the IFC and already received the land rights needed to get started on the factory. I'm not sure but I believe it will be operational in 2011. Contact information is available on the website.
Best,
Dana
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Dana R.H. Doan
LIN Center for Community Development
www.LINvn.org
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From: Michael Digregorio
Date: Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 7:57 PM
Jason
Sorry for the late response.
There's a shop on Hai Ba Trung street near the corner of Le Duan that was recycling bateries since if first came here to work in 1992. Still there. If you follow that thread out, it will take you to the collectors, on one hand, and to the village of Man Xa in Bac Ninh, on the other. The later primarily recycles aluminum, but also does lead. There is another village in Hung Yen that does circuit boards and batteries, but I cannot remember the name right now.
Needless to say, end of cycle lead acid batteries are not wasted in Vetnam. They are always recycled. Even the cases are used to make off-market batteries.
MIke
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From: Jason Morris-Jung
Date: Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 9:25 PM
Thank you to all of you who responded to this inquiry about battery disposal. For those interested, here are a few (upcoming) options at least for Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City:
HANOI
- Shop on corner of Ha Ba Trung and Le Duan, who recycle batteries in Bac Ninh
- Lead Viet is in early stage of setting up a factory to recycle batteries, but have not yet started collecting (hopefully soon!)
HO CHI MINH CITY
- Gratia Recycling is also developing a large project to recycle batteries in Ho Chi Minh City
For anyone who is interested, I think I can say that I am able to recycle nearly all of my daily garbage while living in Hanoi. This is a testimony to the extensive, if informal, recycling infrastructure that exists in Hanoi and most other Vietnamese cities, though it may not always be apparent. Most of our garbage goes to a small household enterprise down the street, which collects bottles (glass and plastic), paper and carton (all sorts), aluminium, tin and other metals for a truck that comes by to pick it up every once a week or so. Organic matter goes either to a small compost we've made or the neighbour's pigs (ok, I live in Long Bien, which still has a bit of a rural edge, but domestic dogs and cats can also work). I now have an outlet for batteries (as above). The only remaining culprit is, of course, plastic, though we try to reduce usage as much as possible.
with kind regards,
jason morris-jung, UC Berkeley
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Jason Morris-Jung
PhD Program
Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (ESPM)
University of California - Berkeley