Key takeaways:

ERI enters Southeast Asia through Vietnam: ERI and Green Marble/VSD have formed a 50-50 joint venture, with operations expected to begin in Q1 2027 and expand significantly by 2028.
Domestic recycling model aligns with government priorities: ERI will source material domestically and avoid cross-border e-waste imports, reflecting growing efforts by governments to retain critical minerals and recycling value chains within national borders.
Vietnam serves as a strategic launchpad for regional growth: The country’s manufacturing base, economic growth and established circular economy infrastructure make it an attractive hub for ERI’s wider Asian expansion plans.
Phased rollout of ERI Vietnam operations
The new 50-50 joint venture is set to begin operating in the first quarter of 2027.

ERI will bring its end-to-end US suite of services – encompassing data destruction, advanced IT equipment shredding, remarketing, recycling, logistics and regulatory compliance services – to Southeast Asia through a phased rollout.

Initial operations will feature baseline ITAD capabilities, small-scale shredding and battery collection. By the end of 2028, ERI hopes to build out its collection and logistics network and expand its shredding and ITAD facility.

Down the line, the company also aims to introduce its proprietary alkaline battery recycling technology to Vietnam, as well as scale up shredding and ITAD operations using self-created IP and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics.

Domestic sourcing strategy and critical minerals retention
Asked about material sourcing, ERI’s chairman and chief executive officer, John Shegerian, stressed that ERI maintains a strict policy against cross-border e-waste imports, relying solely on domestic feedstock in each operating jurisdiction.

“We work closely with governments – from the US government, Japanese government, South Korean government and Vietnamese government – all these governments want the same thing: to domesticate their critical minerals and rare earth magnets now, to keep them in-country, to recycle in-country, and to keep these very valuable resources circularly in-country,” Shegerian said.

Governments tighten controls on secondary raw materials
Most recently, the US government announced temporary restrictions on the export of tungsten waste, end-of-life lithium-ion battery scrap, and black mass for one year, starting August 27.

As of mid-July, South Korea has also been mulling mandatory export declaration requirements for e-waste and copper scrap exports to tighten illegal outflows of the valuable raw materials.

Japanese firms have also been stepping up domestic e-waste recycling efforts to recover more rare earth elements, plastics and non-ferrous scrap following a $6.3 billion injection into plastics and metals recycling back in April.

ERI’s local approach addresses an especially sensitive political nerve in Southeast Asia, where governments across the region are eager to scale up formal recycling infrastructure while actively blocking the “tsunami of e-waste” flagged by the Basel Action Network (BAN).

Changes to Basel Convention e-waste classifications in January 2025 left market participants with more questions than clarity on what is permissible for import. To err on the side of caution, Southeast Asian customs authorities in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines have adopted a stricter interpretation of the regulation and seized aluminium scrap shipments – some of which have been held for over two years – on suspicion of containing misdeclared e-waste.

Why Vietnam was selected as ERI’s regional partner
While acknowledging that regional neighbors like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand boast vast informal e-waste markets, Shegerian told Fastmarkets that “the right partner [had] emerged in Vietnam.”

Backed by a 40-year track record of developing circular economy infrastructure, including two of the nation’s largest waste-to-energy plants, VSD and Green Marble’s mission has aligned closely with ERI’s long-term sustainability goals, Shegerian said.

“Vietnam is also the fastest-growing economy in Asia. Notwithstanding China, Vietnam leads Asia in terms of being a manufacturing hub for the vast majority of the world’s leading OEMs, all of whom are ERI customers and recycling partners,” Shegerian added.

Ambitious international expansion plans
ERI Vietnam marks the company’s second major international partnership, following its joint venture agreement with Japan’s Itochu Corporation back in March. The company has rapidly expanded its cooperative agreements, including a July deal with rare earth recycler Cyclic Materials in Arizona.

“We expected to be in at least 7 to 8 countries in Asia 18 months from now and at least 8 to 9 different countries elsewhere in the world. ERI will have a physical presence in at least 16 countries by the end of 2027. That’s our future, and the announcements will be forthcoming,” Shegerian concluded.

From: Carman Chew, Fastmarkets, 21 AUG 2026, https://www.fastmarkets.com/insights/eri-expands-into-southeast-asia-with-vietnam-e-waste-recycling-venture/.