Members of GOMers hold up a poster for their plan. (Photo: phunuvietnam.vn) Founded in July 2021, the group's mission is to control waste damage to theenvironment from used batteries, Phu nu Vietnam (Vietnamese Women) onlinenewspaper reports.
"The name GOMers comes from the Vietnamese verb gom, which means'collect'. We want to be the generation that will collect the dreams of peoplewho want to protect the environment," said Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh, the groupfounder.
Anh met her friends and co-founders while still in high school. Theyparticipated in an environmental debate competition in 2019 and have becomemore active in the fight against pollution.
But being an environmental activist is not an easy task for high schoolers.
"We had two battery recycle projects that had to be ended abruptly due tothe recycling plant being closed down without notice," said Anh."It's sad because our projects were really getting good publicawareness."
Research conducted by the group in January showed that 77 per cent of studentshave never recycled used batteries, and 88 per cent have never heard of batteryrecycling. The group are on a mission to change this.
The group initialised has created an online campaign to raise awareness ofbattery recycling, and social media posts focus on the negative effects ofmishandled batteries on the environment and the wrong perceptions of the publicon batteries.
The group also holds offline workshops to inform the public and stage exchangeevents where people can trade their used batteries for plants.
"Waste such as used batteries are becoming a worrisome factor to theenvironment," said Thanh Binh, a group member. "The chemicals insideare unpredictably dangerous, and public ignorance is just fuelling thefire."
In one of their meetings, the group shared how they saw local people handleused batteries.
"We saw that they took them out with other waste, or they burn themdirectly," said Anh. "I even saw somebody cook used batteries with BanhChung (sticky rice cake). It's so dangerous, but nobody is aware of this."
As local recycling facilities are either focused on recycling plastic or do nothave proper media campaigning, the group have taken it upon themselves to makethings better, despite others thinking they are wasting their time.
"Some call us dreamers, but I believe that dreams will never come true ifyou never act," said Anh. "We have some members that work tirelesslyjust because of that belief, and we know we're not the only ones."
Duy Hung, another member, said: "The environment is withering every singleday, even from due to the smallest poor habits of people. Either we act now, orwe have nowhere else to live."/.
VNA
