Extended Producer Responsibility for Batteries

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) makes a producer responsible for managing batteries after they become waste. Under the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022, producers must meet prescribed collection and recycling or refurbishment obligations for batteries that they introduce into the market.

Scope and regulated producers

The Rules cover all major battery categories, irrespective of their chemistry, shape, volume, weight, use or material composition. They apply to portable, automotive, industrial and electric-vehicle batteries, including batteries contained in equipment.

• A producer includes an entity that manufactures and sells batteries under its own brand, sells under its brand batteries made by others, or imports batteries or equipment containing batteries.
• The Rules exclude batteries used in equipment connected with essential security interests and equipment designed to be sent into space.

Core EPR obligations

A producer must register with the Central Pollution Control Board through the centralised online portal and fulfil the targets prescribed in Schedule II.

• The producer must ensure that prescribed quantities of waste batteries are collected and sent only for recycling or refurbishment.
• Collected waste batteries must not be disposed of through landfilling or incineration.
• Producers must use the prescribed minimum share of domestically recycled materials in manufacturing new batteries.
• Producers must file prescribed returns and maintain records through the online system.

Certificate-based compliance and enforcement

Registered recyclers and refurbishers generate EPR certificates corresponding to waste batteries processed. Producers fulfil their obligations by obtaining these certificates through the prescribed mechanism, while the portal facilitates registration, reporting and verification.

• Recyclers must meet prescribed recovery targets and transfer recovered materials for further use.
• Non-compliance can attract environmental compensation under the polluter-pays principle.
• Payment of environmental compensation does not extinguish the unfulfilled EPR obligation.

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