SBC ULAB Project Cambodia
Visit Number 3 – Waste Collection Yard
Location:
Interviewers
Interviewee
Date:
- Svay Rieng commune, Svay Rieng district, Svay Rieng province
- Sreng Sophal, Vice Chief of Solid Waste Management Office
- Ken Choviran, Chief of Environment Research and Technology
Management
- *************** Representative of Provincial Department of Environment
- Mrs Neang Pov, Yard owner.
- March 02, 2004
This is a small waste collection yard situated on a plot of land of about 15m X 30m that
purchases waste items such as scrap iron, aluminum, plastic, glass, paper, cartons and
used lead acid batteries (ULAB) from local people and scavengers. This yard employs five
workers between the ages of 23 and 40 years and they are responsible for collecting the
scrap, weighing it and so on. This shop relocated about 40 km to the Svay Rieng district
from Chantrea about three months ago.
Pic 1. The Waste and Scrap Collection Yard
The yard had bought five ULAB from the local people and the scavengers representing
probably less than 4% of the total scrap material in the yard. Sometimes, those people
who owned motorbikes, cars, or were using lead acid batteries to light their homes, sold
the used batteries to the yard or to mobile scavengers that cycled with their carts to the
isolated villages or communes in order to buy directly from the villagers. Nowadays, the
scrap dealers employed scavengers to collect the ULAB from the isolated areas. In this
way, the dealers could expect to collect about 3 to 5 ULAB per week costing between 600
to 800 Riels/kg (0.15 to 0.2 US$). However, all the batteries recovered in this way are
delivered to the yard drained of electrolyte. It is clear from the photograph that the yard
was untidy and the walkways were cluttered.
Pic. 2 Workers sorting the ULAB from the rest of the scrap materials
The Yard was not involved in breaking the ULAB to recovery the plates or recycle the
lead. The ULAB obtained from scavengers are sold to ethnic Vietnamese or Cambodian
traders and transported, in lots of between 500 to 1000 kg, to Vietnam for recycling every
three or four months. Sometimes the Vietnamese traders brought goods into Cambodia
to sell and returned with ULAB to Vietnam. There was definitely no battery breaking or
recycling in Svay Rieng province because it is so close to the border with Vietnam it is not
worth trying to recycle the ULAB in competition with the Vietnamese.
Pic. 3 Scavengers selling scrap items at the Yard
Pic. 4 - ULAB mixed with other items in the Yard
None of the workers were wearing gloves, goggles or masks while they were working.
Indeed, despite the fact that they all handled the batteries and discharged the acid into
either the soil pit or the low land in front of the yard, no protective equipment was visible
anywhere on the premises. Moreover, the workers slept in a hammock suspended either
next to or above the ULAB or they chose to eat close to them.
Pic. 5 – A person asleep in the hammock suspended above the ULAB
Pic. 6 - The ULAB were close to the normal place to eat
During the course of the visit, the shop owners were helpful and allowed access to the
premises and gave permission to take photographs. They only knew about the adverse
health effects of the battery acid, but knew nothing about the serious population and the
environmental threats posed by lead exposure.
March 2, 2004