MoEF&CC notifies Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022

(On August 24, 2022, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) issued Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 by replacing Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules, 2001 to ensure environmentally sound management of waste batteries.
These rules are a step towards promoting the Circular Economy.

Key Points:

• The rules cover all types of batteries, viz, Electric Vehicle batteries, portable batteries, automotive batteries and industrial batteries.
• “The rules function based on the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) where the producers (including importers) of batteries are responsible for collection and recycling/refurbishment of waste batteries and use of recovered materials from wastes into new batteries.
• ‘These will enable setting up a mechanism and centralized online portal for exchange of EPR certificates between producers and recyclers to fulfil the obligations of producers.
• The rules also promote setting up of new industries and entrepreneurship in collection and recycling/refurbishment of waste batteries.
• They will mandate the minimum percentage of recovery of materials from waste batteries which will bring new technologies and investment in recycling and refurbishment industry.
• Prescribing the use of certain amount of recycled materials in making of new batteries will reduce the dependency on new raw materials and save natural resources.
• There will be online registration & reporting, auditing, and committee for monitoring the implementation of rules.
• Under the Rules, the consumers will have to discard waste batteries separately from other waste streams,