South Korea to expand battery and electronic waste collection bins

The South Korean Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment is intensifying efforts to improve the disposal of small electronic waste containing batteries, such as portable fans and power banks. Improper disposal in standard trash bags or mixed with plastics and vinyl can lead to fires during the recycling process if batteries are compressed or damaged.

To address this, the Ministry plans to install 8,000 additional dedicated collection bins for electronic waste and batteries by the end of the year, supplementing the approximately 55,000 bins already in operation. The government is also working to integrate the locations of these bins into online maps, such as Naver, to help citizens find nearby disposal points easily.

Additionally, the Ministry is distributing instructional posters to local governments for use in apartment complexes and requesting that warnings against disposing of power banks in standard trash bags be printed on disposal bags. For products where batteries cannot be easily removed, the entire device should be placed in a dedicated collection bin. For devices where batteries are removable, the batteries should be separated and disposed of individually.