ABRI supports calls for Environment Ministers to act on battery disposal

18 June 2024 – The Association for the Battery Recycling Industry (ABRI) supports calls from the waste sector for Environment Ministers to take urgent action for both the safe disposal of batteries in Australia and a strategic focus on technologies to maximise the recovery of the value materials.

Australians are throwing away an estimated $600 million to $3.1 billion in valuable materials by not recycling lithium batteries according to a report for the Future Batteries Industry CRC.

This call comes as the country has been hit by a wave of fires that have caused serious injuries and property damage. There are reports of over three fires per day in the waste sector causing costly damage to garbage trucks and waste facilities. ABRI highlights that these events are separate from the invisible damage being done every day by the disposal of spent batteries in landfills.

ABRI Chief Executive Officer Katherine Hole says policy support for safe diversion of batteries from landfill to recyclers is critical in the move to net zero.

Ms Hole said Governments need to build on the National Battery Strategy and quickly set the framework for this to happen.

The country’s environment ministers meeting on Friday 21 June, is widely anticipated to discuss lithium batteries due to the recent spate of fires, particularly in the waste sector.

“We support pragmatic solutions to the delivery of producer responsibility which leverage commercial arrangements in the battery supply chain to ensure the metals and critical minerals from batteries are recovered and reused in new products,” Ms Hole said.

“There is a growing battery recycling industry that can play a critical role in recycling safely disposed of batteries across the country and reduce the risk of fires in the waste recovery process.

“We need to fill the collection and logistics gap in the battery circular economy as well as turbocharge the recovery of critical minerals, and this should be a key consideration in environmental policy settings.

“A thriving battery recycling industry will also ensure batteries are not only recovered, but their valuable materials once recovered are reused and not just sent to landfill which is a significant environmental hazard.”

Ms Hole said ABRI had numerous members who were developing cutting-edge processes to recover critical minerals, reuse and repurpose batteries.

“They are drawing on Australia’s manufacturing, mining, and university sector expertise to develop solutions and intellectual property and investing millions into recycling solutions.”

“We have a huge number of used batteries, including Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries, coming down the pipeline and we need a policy framework to manage that, otherwise we are going to see the alarming number of battery fires only increase, and that is a real concern.”

Lithium battery volumes are projected to grow from 32,000 tonnes to over 100,000 tonnes over the next decade. The growth in volumes will be largely driven by EV and energy storage batteries reaching end of life.