Vietnam:15-foot Christmas tree made from more than 2500 unusable cellular phones

Nguyen Trai, a store manager at Westcom Electronicsin the southern city of My Tho, says 10 workers spent two weeks building thecellular Christmas tree that he hopes will raise awareness about hazardous waste andpromote environmental responsibility.

The glittering, cone-shaped creation hasbeen on display for about two weeks outside the store in southern Tien GiangProvince.

Between 700 and 800 people visit daily,Trai told the Associated Press.

"Many of them have taken pictureswith the tree," he said.

Cell phones are ubiquitous in Vietnam,where more than 60 percent of the population is under 30 and hordes of youngpeople flaunt flashy electronics to mark their rising wealth even as thecountry struggles to contain one of Asia's highest inflation rates.

Although the majority of communist Vietnam's 87 million people are Buddhist,there is a sizable Catholic minority and an enthusiastic general embrace of allthings Christmas. The country's two largest cities — Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City— are studded with holiday lights all winter long, with bright-eyed teenspromenading in Santa hats and yuletide-themed electronic music blaring insidewalk cafes.
Westcom Electronics plans to auction its cell phone tree next year anddonate the proceeds to charity, said store manager Nguyen Trai, adding thatstaff members are already collecting unusable phones in hopes of erecting aneven bigger Christmas "pine tree" next year.

There are tens of millions of cell phonesin circulation in Vietnam, but it's impossible to know how many used phones aredumped each year because the government doesn't collect such data, said Nguyen Thanh Yen ofVietnam's Environment Administration.

Yen said he welcomed the idea of raising awareness about hazardous waste,but Westcom Electronics has violated Vietnamese law, which requires businessesto seek official permission before using hazardous waste for new purposes.
According to the United Nations Environment Program, people working in theinformal sector collect the majority of "recyclable and reusablewaste" in urban areas of Vietnam.

Solid waste management is among the"major environmental burdens" in developed and developing countriesacross Asia, especially in mega cities, the U.N. says.