Background
The Ministry of Environment has installed battery collection bins at public sites, shopping malls and fuel stations in Phnom Penh and several provinces to promote proper disposal of used batteries.
Cambodia imports about 400 tonnes of batteries per year, while only around 60 tonnes of used batteries are currently collected for safe storage and processing.
BATTPRO is a technical cooperation project with ECOLOGICON GmbH that aims to establish circular-economy infrastructure and procedures for end-of-life battery collection and processing under an extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework.
Key Developments
On 25 May 2026, the Minister of Environment met with German Ambassador Stefan Messerer and representatives of ECOLOGICON GmbH and expressed government support for the BATTPRO project.
The minister urged the project to emphasise safe storage and technically sound processing methods for various battery types, including electric vehicle batteries and solar-system batteries.
Institutional Role
The Ministry of Environment is promoting public–private technical cooperation to strengthen hazardous-waste management capacity for batteries and other electronic waste in Cambodia.
Government actions to date include public collection points and outreach to reduce mixing of battery waste with general municipal waste and to improve downstream handling practices.
Operational Implications
BATTPRO’s technical studies focus on designing collection systems, storage protocols and processing infrastructure consistent with international technical standards supplied by German partners.
Data cited by the Ministry highlights a large gap between battery imports and volumes currently collected, indicating a need to scale collection and processing systems to manage end-of-life batteries safely.
