Battery Waste
What is Battery?
Battery means new or refurbished cell and/or Battery and/or their component, including accumulator, which is any source of electrical energy generated by direct conversion of chemical energy and includes disposable primary and/or secondary battery.
Battery materials means materials contained in the Battery include metals such as nickel, cobalt, lead, lithium, and other materials such as plastics, paper, etc.
Waste Battery includes:-
- Used and/or End of Life Battery and/or its components or spares or parts or consumables which may or may not be hazardous in nature.
- Pre-consumer off-spec Battery and its components or spares or parts or consumables.
- Battery whose date for appropriate use has expired
- Battery which have been discarded by the user.
Regulatory Framework
Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 were notified by MoEF&CC on 22 August 2022 in supersession of the Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules, 2001.
Extended Producer Responsibility means responsibility of any Producer of Battery for Environmentally sound management of Waste Battery;
Targets for Extended Producer Responsibility:-
- Producer introducing Battery in the market shall fulfill the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) targets.
- The Extended Producer Responsibility target shall include the collection targets mentioned in the tables below and 100% recycling and/or refurbishment target of Extended Producer Responsibility collection target of the respective year.
- The recycling of Waste Battery means recycling of Battery materials such as lead, nickel, lithium, nickel, cobalt, plastics, rubber, glass, etc.
- Extended Producer Responsibility target for the Producer shall be specific to the kind of Battery (viz. Lead acid, Li-Ion, Nickel Cadmium, Zinc based Battery, etc.) within each type of Battery- portable, automotive, industrial and electric vehicle Battery.
- Producer will meet their Extended Producer Responsibility obligation through the Extended Producer Responsibility certificate made available by recycler or refurbisher. In case of non-availability of Extended Producer Responsibility certificates with recyclers or refurbishes, the Producer shall have the responsibility of collection as well.
| # |
Type of Battery |
Minimum use of the recycled materials out of total dry weight of a Battery (%) |
| 2027-28 |
2028-29 |
2029-30 |
2030-31 and onwards |
| 1 |
Portable |
5 |
10 |
15 |
20 |
| 2 |
Electric Vehicle |
5 |
10 |
15 |
20 |
| |
|
2024-25 |
2025-26 |
2026-27 |
2027-28 and onwards |
| 3 |
Automotive |
35 |
35 |
40 |
40 |
| 4 |
Industrial |
35 |
35 |
40 |
40 |
Responsibilities of stakeholders under Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022
Functions of Consumer:-
It will be the responsibility of consumer;
- to discard Waste Battery separately from other waste streams especially from mixed waste, domestic waste streams;
- to ensure that Waste Battery are disposed off in an environment friendly manner by giving it to an entity engaged in collection or refurbishment or recycling;
Functions of Entity involved in collection, segregation and treatment:-
It shall be the responsibility of entities involved in collection, segregation and treatment to hand over Waste Battery to registered refurbisher or recycler;
It shall be the responsibility of the entity;
- to ensure that a facility is in accordance with the standards or guidelines prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board;
- to carry out any activity in accordance with the guidelines prescribed by Central Pollution Control Board.
Functions of Producer:-
- Producer shall have the obligation of Extended Producer Responsibility for the Battery that they introduce in the market to ensure the attainment of the recycling or refurbishing obligations.
- Producer shall meet the collection and recycling and/or refurbishment targets as mentioned in Schedule II for Battery made available in the market.
- Waste Battery collected by the Producer shall be sent for recycling or refurbishing and shall not be sent for land filling or incineration.
- The person or an entity involved in manufacturing of Battery shall have to register through the online centralized portal as Producer in Form 1(A). The certificate of registration shall be issued in Form 1(B).
- In order to develop a separate waste stream for collection of Waste Battery for fulfilling Extended Producer Responsibility obligations, the Producer, may operate schemes such as deposit refund system or buy back or any other model.
Functions of Refurbisher / Recycler of Batteries:-
- All refurbishers / Recyclers shall register with State Pollution Control Board / Pollution Control Committee on the centralized portal. The certificate of registration shall be issued using the portal in Form 2(B).
- It shall be the responsibility of the Refurbisher / Recyclers to;
i) to make an application in Form 2(A) to the State Pollution Control Board / / Pollution Control Committee for grant of one-time registration;
ii) to ensure that it carries out any activity in accordance with the guidelines prescribed by Central Pollution Control Board;
iii) to ensure that hazardous waste generated from any activity of the entity is managed as per the provisions under Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016;
iv) to ensure that other waste generated during handling and refurbishing activities be managed as per the extant regulations such as Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 and Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016;
v) to ensure that refurbishment processes and facilities comply with the standards or guidelines prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board;
vi) to ensure that the Waste Battery is removed from collected appliance if Battery
- Refurbishers /Recyclers shall furnish the quarterly returns in Form 4 regarding the information on quantity of Waste Battery collected or received from various producers or entity, recycled quantities, compliance of material-wise recovery percentage as per recovery targets provided under sub-rule 4 of rule 10, quantity of hazardous and/or other waste including solid waste or plastic waste generated after recycling and of such quantity as per as per extant rules and the quarterly return shall be filed by the end of the month succeeding the end of the quarter.
Public Waste Management Authorities:-
for the purpose of these rules means Village Panchayat, Municipal Corporation, Municipality and agencies engaged on their behalf.
Functions of Public Waste Management Authorities:-
- (1) Public Waste Management Authorities will hand over collected Waste Battery to the producers or agencies acting on their behalf or the entity engaged in refurbishment or recycling with a view to refurbishment or recycling of those Waste Battery or carry out their recycling or refurbishment themselves.