E-Waste Crisis Looms in Cambodia Amid Alarming Battery Disposal Rates

Between 2021 and 2025, Ecobatt has collected about 32 tonnes of batteries, 10 tonnes of small batteries and approximately 36 tonnes of e-waste, which includes computers, printers and other electronic devices.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): E-waste experts have raised grave concerns that out of the millions of mobile devices in the market, only 0.5 percent of phone batteries - amounting to thousands of metric tonnes - are recycled, with the remainder ending up in landfills and open burn sites.

During the Cambodia Circular Economy Forum 2025, which was held on September 10 to 12 in Phnom Penh, experts said the lack of e-waste management awareness among citizens and recycling e-waste infrastructure has led to the improper disposal of batteries and electronic devices.

However, participants heard that in a bid to resolve the issue, innovative recycling interventions, heightened awareness of e-waste management and funding have been requested to better address the rising of e-waste in Cambodia.

Dr. Andre Ruckert, a consultant at Ecologicon GMBH, said Cambodia imports all of its batteries and has no domestic production. He added that the majority of batteries are used in households, B2B applications and exported devices.

In 2024, Cambodia imported 80.72 Mg (weight of a magnesium) of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and 1.44 Mg of battery products. It is estimated that there are approximately 24 million devices with batteries and about 1,146 metric tonnes of batteries in the market.

However, only 2.1 Mg of portable batteries have been recycled by Ecobatt Energy Cambodia, which recycles electronic waste, a total 396.3 Mg. About 215.8 Mg went to informal repair and resale shops, and the rest were sent to landfill, for open burning or disposed of in the environment.

“It has been estimated that in 2024, disposal of batteries through households mostly (58.5 percent) went into the informal sector, 29 percent to municipal waste collection, 11 percent littering, open burning or dumping, and only 0.5 percent recycled by Ecobatt Energy Cambodia,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), e-waste is one of the fastest growing solid wastes in the world. In 2022, an estimated 62 million tonnes of e-waste was produced globally. Of that, only 22.3 percent was documented as formally collected and recycled.

WHO warned that children and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to improper e-waste disposal, which can contribute to increased rates of stillbirth and premature birth, as well as affect neurodevelopment and learning and behaviour outcomes, and reduce lung and respiratory function and increased asthma incidence.

Chheuy Bona, Operation Manager at Ecobatt Energy Cambodia, raised concerns over a lack of awareness about waste management regarding batteries in electronic devices and vehicles. He added that when used batteries are stored at home, it may negatively impact health.

“There are environmental issues that surround us in daily life. But, on a daily basis, we rarely notice them, or are unable to see the negative impact of small electronics devices that we use everyday. The impact occurs in our daily life, but we don’t notice it,” he said.

“Recycling services, or so called regeneration battery service, is very important for customers as it contributes to saving the environment. Because through that service, customers will be able to reuse their battery or recycle it. After we help them to recycle the battery, they can reuse it again. This is part of our big vision to help reduce battery waste in Cambodia.”

Bona called for the implementation of standard operation of electronic device waste management in Cambodia to assist in facilitating e-waste disposal for Cambodian citizens in better and more convenient ways. Furthermore, he requested standardisation for companies collecting e-waste to recycle.

Ecobatt Energy Cambodia has been collecting battery wastes from 200 e-waste bins in Phnom Penh and other provinces. The public can dispose of batteries that are low-quality or running out of power in the bins, which can be found in malls and markets across Cambodia.

“A Cambodian person can produce approximately 1.5 kilograms of e-waste per day. While e-waste that is in the market is estimated to be around 2.5 kilograms. Therefore, each year the e-waste that exists in Cambodia is quite a lot,' he said.

Bona noted that there are hurdles in achieving their goal of tackling the improper disposal of e-waste. He stated that some people sell old devices and other electronics to informal waste and scrap collectors, with the e-waste ending up in landfill or being disposed of improperly.

Ecobatt Energy Cambodia plans to launch an app that citizens can use to dispose of their used and old batteries. Users upload the location of where the e-waste is to be collected from, which is provided to companies to collect.

“The amount of e-waste that we collected is still very low compared to the number of batteries and electronic devices that we imported into the country. The main barriers are people lack awareness about e-waste impact and they don’t know where to dispose of it properly,” Bona added.

He called for further collaboration from educational, infrastructure and financial stakeholders, as well as the Ministry of Environment, to tackle the e-waste issues in Cambodia.

Courtesy: www.kiripost.com