How India's Battery Recycling Boom Could Create 100,000 Green Jobs and Secure Mineral Independence

Across India, battery recycling is emerging as a critical industry that blends challenges with immense opportunities, playing a vital role in the country's transition to clean energy. Over the past decade, a fledgling system has developed to recover valuable materials from batteries used in electric vehicles, smartphones, and other consumer electronics.

The Economic and Environmental Impact

Companies are extracting minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel from used batteries, which are then reused in India's growing fleet of electric vehicles and solar power installations. This recycling and repurposing effort is key to reducing dependence on imports for these hard-to-obtain metals.

Rajat Verma, founder and CEO of Lohum Cleantech, stated: "More than 40% of the country's copper and aluminum needs are met by recycling scrap and we want to aspire for the same when it comes to lithium, cobalt and nickel."

Job Creation Potential

A formalized battery recycling system could potentially create 100,000 green jobs and meet nearly 40% of India's demand for key minerals, according to a November study by renewable energy think tank RMI. The report found that an industry around recycling and reusing batteries could be worth $9 billion as India's battery demand skyrockets, mostly due to EVs.

Marie McNamara, a manager with RMI's India program, explained: "What's exciting about these materials is it's not like plastics. You can recycle them for perpetuity and they can still have material strength and the quality you need once you refine them."

Current Challenges and Infrastructure Gaps

Despite the potential, the system faces significant hurdles. India currently has 60,000 tons of battery recycling capacity, but not all of it is utilized because supply chains are still being developed. One major challenge is that most of India's waste recycling is done by informal workers—estimated to be as many as four million—who deal with various scrap materials beyond batteries and work without formal contracts.

Policy Implementation Issues

India passed battery waste management rules in 2022 that mandate environmentally safe disposal and management of battery waste. However, given the largely informal nature of scrap recycling, experts and recycling companies say the rule has been poorly implemented. The rules include heavy fines for violators but lack specific outlets for discarded batteries, forcing each company to set up their own recycling systems.

Jaideep Saraswat, an energy expert with the Vasudha Foundation, noted that India has moved "surprisingly fast from a policy perspective," but the right battery recycling supply chain is still missing.

How Battery Recycling Works

A typical electric car battery is about 1.5 meters long, weighs up to 400 kilograms, and is designed to last at least 160,000 kilometers (usually 8-12 years of use). Up to 90% of an EV battery's contents can be extracted if recycled properly.

Recycling processes vary but commonly involve:

• Shredding battery modules into fine powder using machines
• Smelting them in industrial furnaces
• Processing the resulting materials with acids or other chemicals to recover specific metals

Alternatively, discarded batteries can be repurposed to store excess solar and wind energy for homes and small shops after testing for defects and cleaning components.

Environmental and Safety Concerns

Toxic contaminants are sometimes dumped illegally by recyclers, causing environmental pollution. If not done properly, recycling lithium batteries can emit carbon monoxide and other hazardous gases, and the process typically produces wastewater containing heavy metals that can contaminate soil and water if improperly disposed.

Nishchay Chadha, CEO of U.S.-based ACE Green Recycling, which has operations in India, said: "We've not expanded much in India because we don't see much appreciation for clean operations, whether it's lead or lithium."

The Path Forward: Formalization and Training

RMI's McNamara urged India to set up training programs to help scrap workers transition to more formal jobs and suggested that government at federal and state levels should provide support to businesses that can hire these workers.

"Formalization will really help drive safety and accountability, especially considering that batteries are both defined by their toxicity as well as their potential," she said.

Reducing Dependence on Imported Minerals

Globally, critical minerals like lithium, nickel, and cobalt are essential for products ranging from smartphones to electric cars. China controls much of the critical mineral supply chain through mining, refining, and processing, according to the International Energy Agency.

India doesn't yet have operational mines for lithium and some other key minerals and is dependent on imports. Effectively recovering minerals from used products could meet an important need.

Chadha noted that China takes recycling seriously as part of the supply chain, even when unprofitable: "They also actually lose money on recycling, but they look at it as part of the whole puzzle where recycling is a critical part and they're looking at making money across the whole value chain."

Despite challenges, optimism remains in the battery sector. Verma of Lohum Cleantech predicted: "If the momentum that is there in India today continues, in my opinion, we can probably create five multibillion dollar giants in this industry."