Vietnam Recycles launches cooperation program with universities
Xem Tiếng Việt 
New program to collect e-waste at 10 HCMC and Hanoi universities kicks off
Ho Chi Minh City, 02 May 2018: Vietnam Recycles (VR), in conjunction with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and 10 local and international universities in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, inaugurated its latest collection campaign at schools and universities. At each of the selected schools, Vietnam Recycles will train students to become program ambassadors. Through the ambassadors, Vietnam Recycles is able to amplify their efforts to increase awareness of the importance of professional electronics recycling to Vietnam’s environment. In addition to this, ambassadors may collect discarded electronics on behalf of the program and will be awarded based on collection volumes.
The program commences on March 2018 and will last for one year.
VR successfully recycled almost 10,000 kilograms of e-waste in 2017, doubling the 4,800 collected the year prior, helping to remove items from Vietnam’s households. Topping the list of items that the organization recycled last year were printers, fax machines and scanners – with the three items comprising 48% of the materials that VR was able to recycle at its state of the art recycling facility, rising from a 13% share in 2016. Electronic components made up 20% of the items that VR recycled, with laptop and desktop computers accounting for a further 8%.
Still, despite impressive numbers, the nation is still falling well short of the total e-waste the nation is producing, which the Ministry of Science and Technology estimates could be as high as 90,000 tonnes per year.
“Our growth last year is a sign that our message is catching on around Vietnam,” said Ms. Miriam Lassernig, VR’s spokesperson. “Of the groups that have been the most supportive and receptive to our message, university students have been the standout. Students are questioning their own habits and are sensitive to environmental and health issues. They acknowledge their own role and power as consumers and are willing to live up to the responsibilities that come with this. This led us to explore ways to partner with students to help spread our message and help get e-waste out of people’s back-rooms, off the streets, and recycled to the highest of international standards. Ideally, these student partnerships will help instill recycling behaviors in them that become habits that they retain through their adult lives.”
Each of the 10 universities will nominate teams of at least five ambassadors to conduct periodic e-waste collection and help with community outreach and education programs by distributing posters, and leaflets and hanging banners in their neighborhoods, along with sharing relevant content on social media to help spread the recycling message among their on-and-offline communities. Each university will also place an recycling container on campus, which will be periodically moved to a VNR collection point, where weights will be tallied and prizes and certifications awarded to teams.
Participating universities are:
- Ton Duc Thang University
- Ho Chi Minh University of Technology
- Ho Chi Minh University of Science
- Ho Chi Minh University of Natural Resources and Environment
- Ho Chi Minh University of Food Industry
- Ha Noi University of Natural Resources and Environment
- Ha Noi University of Science
- Hanoi University of Technology
- Alfred Nobel School (ANS)
- Vietnam-Australia School, Hanoi (VAS Hanoi)
In addition to the university-based collection program, VR also offers a collection service at households and firms (terms and conditions apply). At the same time, in order to create convenience for locals to dispose e-waste in a manner that ensures responsible, international standard recycling, VR has established 10 collection points in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Find more details about collection points as well as contact VR at www.vietnamrecycles.com/vi.
