The Ministry of Environment (Minister Han Wha-jin) announced that on the afternoon of July 11, Minister Han Wha-jin will visit the Metropolitan Electronics Recycling Center (MERC, located in Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do), a home appliance recycling facility, to inspect the safety management status of the entire recycling process, including the disassembly, separation, transportation, and storage of waste home appliances containing batteries.

The MERC, established in 2003, is a recycling facility that dismantles and disassembles waste electrical and electronic products collected from the metropolitan area to recover useful resources (such as iron, copper, and plastic). As of last year, it processes 29,000 tons of waste home appliances annually.

The Ministry and the home appliance recycling cooperative E-Cycle Governance have identified that if waste batteries are not safely separated and stored, there is a potential risk of fire. Therefore, they are currently developing a fire detection kit to safely dismantle waste batteries and transport them to dedicated recycling facilities. This device is expected to complete its technical development by October of this year and will be distributed to collection centers and recycling facilities nationwide starting next year.

In addition, the Ministry plans to enhance the current safety standards* for the dismantling, storage, and transportation of waste batteries by referencing overseas cases and making them more detailed.

* Such as fire prevention measures, suspension of operations in case of accidents, and retrieval of leaked waste

Minister Han Wha-jin stated, “As the usage of battery-containing home appliances, such as portable fans, is increasing recently, we will take proactive measures to prevent any potential safety accidents.” She added, “We will devote our utmost efforts to the safety management of the entire recycling process, including dismantling, transporting, and storing waste batteries.”

For further information, please contact the Public Relations Division. 

Contact person: Gina Lee, foreign media spokesperson

Phone: +82-44-201-6055

Email: gcjgina @gmail.com