The customer-participation recycling campaign “Battery Return” conducted by LG Electronics (Photo courtesy of LG Electronics)
SEOUL, July 30 (Korea Bizwire) — LG Electronics announced Monday that its consumer recycling campaign “Battery Return” has collected more than 108 tons of used batteries over the past four years, underscoring its commitment to circular resource practices and rare metal recovery.
Since its launch, the program has retrieved over 240,000 batteries, yielding more than 9.6 tons of rare metals such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, and manganese. The cumulative number of participating customers has surpassed 140,000 as of this year.
The Battery Return campaign encourages customers to return used batteries from LG cordless vacuum cleaners in exchange for discounts on new parts. The collected batteries, many of which are non-reusable, are disassembled and processed to extract rare metals — a process LG describes as essential for global sustainability due to the scarcity of these resources.
Since 2022, LG has partnered with South Korea’s Ministry of Environment, Korea Environment Corporation, and E-Circulation Governance to run the campaign biannually.
This year, LG expanded its outreach by promoting the initiative through nationwide service centers, its online store (LGE.COM), and city bus advertisements to raise public awareness about resource recycling.
The first phase of this year’s campaign ran from May through June. A second round is scheduled to begin in October. Customers can participate by returning used batteries to any LG service center or pre-registering online and depositing them at designated e-waste collection points.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
