Scrap collectors have long been a staple of everyday life across residential neighborhoods in Việt Nam. Items that appear to have reached the end of their utility—such as old rice cookers, cracked smartphones, or broken electric fans—are weighed, sorted, and transported on the backs of motorbikes.
This marks the beginning of a new journey through an intricate network of neighborhood collectors, repair shops, and small recycling businesses. Most households do not consider the final destination of discarded electronics; these ordinary exchanges fuel an informal system that keeps valuable materials in circulation long before they reach any official recycling program.
Operating largely out of the public spotlight for decades, this network relies on convenience, long-standing relationships, and local market demand. It has become an essential, albeit overlooked, pillar of Việt Nam’s recycling landscape.
As the nation transitions toward a circular economy, a fundamental question emerges: can this shift succeed without recognizing the informal workforce that already recovers the vast majority of its electronic waste?
When E-Waste Outpaces the System
Driven by rapid technological change, shorter product lifecycles, and rising consumer demand, electronic waste is now one of the fastest-growing waste streams globally.
According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2024, the world generated a record 62 billion kg of e-waste in 2022—a massive increase from 34 million tons in 2010.
However, only 22.3% of this waste was formally collected and recycled in an environmentally sound manner. The remainder was left unmanaged, mixed with other waste streams, or handled outside formal recycling systems.
Việt Nam is no exception. While rising incomes, rapid urbanization, and widespread digital adoption have modernized how people live and work, these factors have also accelerated the turnover of electronic products.
Devices such as mobile phones, laptops, televisions, and household appliances are replaced more frequently, creating a steadily growing stream of discarded electronics containing both valuable recoverable materials and potentially hazardous substances.
Recognizing these mounting challenges, Việt Nam has gradually strengthened its legal framework for waste management; the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 introduced Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
This mandates that producers and importers of specific items, including electrical and electronic equipment, contribute to the collection and recycling of post-consumer waste. The policy is an important step towards a circular economy, aiming to keep materials in productive use for as long as possible instead of discarding them.
Legislation, however, only addresses part of the issue. In practice, relatively few households utilize formal collection channels to dispose of unwanted electronics.
Attracted by immediate cash payments and familiarity, many continue to sell old devices to neighborhood scrap collectors. Long before an obsolete television or mobile phone reaches a licensed recycling facility, it usually passes through an extensive informal network that has evolved over decades.
This disconnect reveals a paradox within Việt Nam’s circular economy: official policy focuses heavily on building formal recycling systems, but a significant portion of the country’s e-waste already moves through an entirely different infrastructure.
The informal system exists not through regulatory design but because it grew organically to meet everyday economic needs. Understanding the functions of this network and why it continues to dominate the initial stage of e-waste collection is essential to understanding the future of electronic waste management in Việt Nam.
The Hidden Network Behind Việt Nam’s E-Waste
Operating in parallel with the formal waste management system, Việt Nam’s informal recycling sector predates current policy concerns by decades. Well before e-waste became a national priority, neighborhood scrap collectors, second-hand traders, repair shops, and small dismantling businesses had already established a vast network for collecting and redistributing discarded electronics.
What began as a way for many households to earn a living has quietly evolved into an important, albeit unrecognized, pillar of Việt Nam’s resource recovery system.
The appeal of this system for consumers is convenience. Selling an obsolete television or mobile phone directly to a local scrap collector is often faster than locating formal collection points.
Within this system, repairable devices are diverted to the second-hand market, while broken units are dismantled to recover valuable materials such as copper, aluminum, and steel for resale. By extending product lifecycles and salvaging reusable resources, this network already executes the core principles of a circular economy.
This phenomenon is not unique to Việt Nam. As noted by the Global E-waste Monitor 2024, informal collection remains a vital component of e-waste management across many low- and middle-income countries where formal systems are still maturing. Consequently, many experts argue that as nations expand their recycling capacities, environmental progress will require forging safer, stronger links between the established informal networks and the formal sector.
However, the efficiency of this informal system comes at a high human and environmental cost. Small-scale dismantling typically relies on rudimentary tools and lacks basic protective equipment. The improper handling of electronic components can release hazardous substances, including lead, mercury, and cadmium.
According to the World Health Organization, such unsafe recycling practices contaminate air, soil, and water, while prolonged toxic exposure causes severe adverse health effects, particularly threatening children and pregnant women.
These severe risks do not justify excluding the informal sector from a circular economy; instead, they emphasize the necessity of systemic improvement. Enhancing occupational protection, providing access to safer recycling methods, and fostering cooperation between informal collectors and formal facilities are essential steps.
As Việt Nam advances toward a true circular economy, the challenge is not to eradicate this hidden network but to integrate it into a safer, more effective, and highly inclusive recycling system.
Bridging the Gap Between Policy and Practice
Việt Nam has laid the foundations for a circular economy through the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 and the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). These policies represent a shift from treating waste and garbage as a valuable, recoverable resource. However, the long-term success of these regulations relies heavily on their alignment with the realities of current recycling practices.
Among these realities is the informal sector’s role as the primary contact point for discarded electronics. Operating formal and informal systems in isolation may still yield recovered materials, but it limits opportunities to enhance environmental standards, worker safety, and data collection.
Hence, bridging this gap requires forging stronger connections between the two systems rather than attempting to replace one with the other.
Global precedents for this integration already exist. In Colombia, for example, waste pickers have achieved formal recognition through policies that integrate them into municipal waste management, successfully improving both working conditions and recycling metrics.
Although e-waste presents unique complexities, the lesson remains clear: recognizing and incorporating existing collection networks strengthens a nation’s transition toward a circular economy.
For Việt Nam, progress lies in reinforcing the current collection network, which already provides an indispensable service to millions of households. Providing access to protective equipment, supporting safer working practices, fostering cooperation with licensed recyclers, and raising public awareness about responsible disposal will make this network more efficient and sustainable.
As the World Bank has noted, building a circular economy requires not only appropriate policies and regulation but also institutions and incentives that support more efficient resource use.
Việt Nam has the opportunity to recognize the informal sector as a core component of its circular economy transition. The question is no longer whether these hidden networks exist but how to evolve them into safer, more efficient partners for a sustainable future.
Looking Beyond the Scrap Trade
While the transition to a circular economy is often associated with advanced recycling technologies, modern regulations, and corporate responsibility, Việt Nam’s experience reveals a different story that has quietly unfolded for decades.
Every day, neighborhood scrap collectors, repair shops, and small traders successfully keep electronic products and valuable materials in circulation, although their labor is rarely mentioned in mainstream sustainability discussions.
Recognizing the contribution of these workers does not require ignoring the environmental and health risks inherent to informal recycling. Instead, it means acknowledging that an effective circular economy must build upon existing operational strengths while systematically addressing their flaws.
Implementing policies that enhance working conditions, enforce environmental safeguards, and foster collaboration between informal collectors and formal recyclers will ensure that economic value is recovered without sacrificing human health or the environment.
As Việt Nam’s digital economy expands, the volume of generated electronic waste will undoubtedly surge. Managing this challenge demands more than just passing new regulations or building additional recycling facilities. It requires recognizing the people who have formed the first link in the nation’s recycling chain.
Decades before Việt Nam engaged in modern discourses regarding a circular economy, neighborhood scrap collectors were already extending the lifecycles of electronics and recovering valuable materials.
Their methodology has never been perfect, nor has it been risk-free. However, as e-waste levels rise, constructing a sustainable future in Việt Nam will depend not only on adopting new policies and technologies but also on formally recognizing and actively improving the grassroots system that has been functioning there all along.
