16 January 2025
Wishing you a happy and prosperous 2025
This year is expected to be another pivotal one for the advancement of a battery circular economy in Australia. To support you and your businesses, this ABRI Member Bulletin provides details on events and information papers on key topics for the industry.
Watch for a special member bulletin from ABRI President, Nicholas Assef, on policy, macro and global trends actors expected to impact the industry and recycling businesses over the year ahead.
ABRI’s early priorities for the start of 2025 are:
✨ Working with the New South Wales EPA and members to inform the development of Australia's first mandatory battery producer responsibility scheme. Legislation is scheduled to be introduced later this year. ABRI will encourage other states and territories to follow this example and is engaging closely with Victoria. Further information on NSW’s commitment is available in a media release from the NSW Minister for the Environment.
🌐Finalising details for member networking events in Canberra (25 Feb) and Queensland (17 Mar) – put a note in your diaries
🔋Lining up another blockbuster agenda for our third Australian Battery Recycling & Manufacturing Summit on 17 July in Sydney. This will be another great conference packed full of ideas and inspiration. More information below and purchase your early bird tickets by 28 February.
🧪 Continuing to build upon ABRI’s compilation of Australian research across battery reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling
2. Preparations for the 2025 Summit well underway
Agenda development for the 2025 Summit (17 July, Sydney Hilton) is well underway.
In Australia, directions in battery producer responsibility legislation and policy will be a key topic of interest. NSW Minister for the Environment, the Hon Penny Sharpe, will be the keynote speaker and NSW EPA has also committed to providing a speaker. ABRI is engaging with another jurisdiction to see if they will be in a position to provide a policy direction update by July.
A skills development panel is close to being finalised and will focus on priorities and current initiatives with participants from: Qld TAFE Clean Energy Batteries Centre of Excellence; ACT TAFE Electric Vehicle Centre of Excellence; and the Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance (AUSMASA).
Watch for further updates and sign up for the Early Bird ticket price by 28 February. Register here
3. Promoting industry priorities in Canberra
Ahead of the Federal election, ABRI is visiting Canberra to discuss strategies with Members of Parliament for turbocharging the development of a robust, homegrown battery recycling and remanufacturing industry.
ABRI members are invited to engage in this discussion through:
Providing feedback on your key priorities for the industry. ABRI’s existing submission can be found here.
Attending a networking event with Parilamentarians, political staffers and key stakeholders at Parliament House on Tuesday 25 February. Invitations will be sent in the next week and there are limited spaces available due to the size of the function room. Any member interested in sponsoring this event should reach out to ABRI CEO, Katharine Hole via email.
4. Information Paper Australian Dangerous Goods Code 7.9 - what’s new and what’s coming?
Thanks to our partnership with Johnson Winter Slattery (JWS), a new information paper on dangerous goods requirements is available in the members only section of the ABRI website.
Alexandra Neovius, Special Counsel, Corporate, Energy and Resources, has prepared an information paper on the latest edition of the Australian Code for the Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road & Rail (the Code, edition 7.9), which can be used from 1 October 2024 (depending on location), with compliance mandatory from 1 October 2025. The paper covers:
Legal background
Additions to Class 9 and special provisions
Packaging and labelling
What’s next
A reminder that JWS provides a Hotline service for ABRI members as follows:
Requests to use the hotline must be emailed to Richard Graham, Partner, and include a brief outline of the issue. This will allow JWS to identify which solicitor has the best expertise to assist.
Calls will be around 15 to 30 minutes in length and will be on Microsoft teams.
The service is information only and not a legal advice service. Members seeking formal legal advice will need to request written advice as a follow-up to the hotline service and for which there will be a fee (although there is no obligation to use JWS for this advice). Follow up emails from a hotline call will also not be considered formal legal advice.
There is no charge for using the hotline. However, the service will be reviewed by JWS and the ABRI Executive Committee on a regular basis to ensure that usage is within the operating framework and remains within ABRI’s budget for the retainer. If ABRI member service use of the retainer arrangement looks like exceeding ABRI’s budget, then ABRI will discuss with members and JWS options for restructuring.
5. Mauritius - E-waste recycler seeking Australian partner
B.E.M. Recycling has reached out to ABRI seeking a partner to apply for Australian Government funding to build a battery and PV recycling plant in Mauritius. Funding is through the Australian Government’s Quad Clean Energy Supply Chain Diversification Funding Program. Applications close on 10 February.
A plant is needed to provide a service to Mauritius, Seychelles, Rodrigues, Comoros, Madagascar and Reunion islands and Australia has much needed technology and expertise to support this initiative. Critically, Australian recyclers understand the logistics challenges of small populations, large distances, island transport, mixed battery formats and chemistries, etc.
B.E.M has the space and land to build a facility of 3,000 square meters. They propose to build a plant to process the batteries into black mass. For the PV panels, B.E.M. proposes that the panels will be dismantled and materials segregated, shredded, crushed and turned into secondary raw materials.
Mauritius has an extended producer responsibility program, which will also support project revenue, and can collaborate with the other countries through the COI (Commission of the Indian Ocean) Regroup Project.
For further information, please email Berty Malabar.
6. ABRI Member Events
24 February 2025 - Canberra - Networking event Parliament House
13 March 2025 - Brisbane - Networking event sponsored by Johnson Winter Slattery
27 March 2025 - Online - ABRI 2025 AGM
17 July 2025 - 2025 Australian Battery Recycling & Manufacturing Summit Early bird tickets end 28 February
7. Guidelines and information papers
5 December - Presentation from JWS Partner, Michelle Laidlaw, information session Greenwashing: Making claims about environmental sustainability and performance
8. Building the Industry’s Voice - out and about with ABRI
Media release (11 Dec) - NSW legislation a step in the right direction