Recycling Electric Vehicles

Why in news?

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are seen as key to decarbonise mobility, but there are challenges in recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles.

How the battery waste is managed in India?

What are the concerns with the Battery Waste Management Rules?

• Labelling requirements- The labels on batteries in India does not carry an icon (a crossed bin) which indicates that the batteries cannot be disposed of in regular bins.
• Design constraints- There is an absence of eco-design during assembly for recycling to employ corrective methods.
• Lack of traceability- The rules do not provide tracking of material used in the batteries, which is critical to reduce the carbon and environmental footprint of the batteries.
• Absence of harmonisation- The rules do not establish regulatory standards for testing and classifying used batteries that have a second life.
• Counterfeit documents- - Recyclers or dismantlers are falsifying documents and moving the same shipments repeatedly to meet their targets.
• Financial crunch- Recycling plants are capital intensive and will be operating at low capacity as the volume of end-of-life batteries are still very low.
• The rules do not provide incentives for recycling capacity and facilities.

Why there is a need for battery recycling and reuse?

• Limited resource availability- Recycling of batteries can generate a source for rare metals.
  • Using recycling technologies, 95% of metals can be recycled for use in manufacturing new batteries.
• Environmental hazards- If not handled well, it could reach in landfill thus contaminating soil and groundwater.
• The environmental impact of metal recycling from lithium ion batteries waste is significantly less than from metal extraction from the mines.
• Import dependency- It is important for India to establish recycling ecosystem to save forex.
  • India’s major import is from China which holds 51% of global cell manufacturing capacity.
• Supply chain disruption- COVID 19 pandemic has exposed business risks as a result of disruptions in the global supply chain, resulting in a long lead time for raw material deliveries.
• Recent Russia-Ukraine war has also affected the supply chain of key battery metals like nickel and aluminium, along with crude oil.
• Price discovery- Creating a well-established recycle ecosystem can help discover the resale value of batteries for reuse/ recycle applications.

Telangana model- Electric Vehicle Policy provides incentives to recycling businesses for ultra-processing.

Punjab model- Punjab is creating an e-marketplace to encourage resale of used batteries along with incentives to promote resale.

What lies ahead?

• There is a need to revamp the 2022 Rules to make battery labelling mandatory and provide all the critical information needed on battery composition, performance etc., for efficient refurbishing and recycling.
• Mandatory battery durability requirements can incentivize the production of long-lasting batteries and support second-life usage.
• The Deposit Refund System which is mentioned in the 2022 Rules to provide incentives to customers to return batteries must be popularised.
• Disposal of batteries in landfill should be prohibited and an effective mechanism must be developed for proper disposal of batteries.

References

1. Down To Earth- The future of transport is electric
2. Down To Earth- Revamp battery recycling rules
3. Down To Earth- EV battery recycling