By Amit Kapoor and Mohammad Saad
One of Delhi’s most notable policy initiatives to address its pollution problem is the End-of-Life (ELV) vehicle bans, which target gasoline and diesel vehicles older than 15 and 10 years, respectively. Even though implementation has now been postponed until November, the move is gaining traction outside of the capital, with a similar ban getting announced in Haryana. The policy’s goals are clear: encourage the use of fuel-efficient vehicles, accelerate the phase-out of polluting vehicles, and gradually shift urban mobility toward electric vehicles (EVs). More and more people now believe that EVs are essential for a sustainable future. However, the challenge of lithium battery recycling remains insufficiently addressed in India’s electric mobility push.
With a goal of 30% of vehicle fleet being electric by 2030, India’s EV market is growing quickly thanks to a strong government push. Unfortunately, the safe retirement and recycling of millions of EV batteries that are anticipated to reach end-of-life within the next five to seven years will become increasingly difficult as a result of this expansion. The foundation of EVs, lithium-ion batteries, present significant health and environmental hazards if improperly handled. When it leaks or burns, lithium is extremely toxic and flammable. Inadequate disposal or careless dismantling can endanger drinking water supplies and agriculture by causing hazardous fires, releasing harmful gases, and contaminating the groundwater and soil. Workers in the unorganized sector who handle this waste run the risk of long-term exposure to conditions like cancer, neurological disorders, and birth defects.
Despite the magnitude of this risk, India’s EV policy is still primarily directed toward increasing sales, providing incentives, and developing charging infrastructure, all the while ignoring the battery’s end-of-life cycle. This oversight is concerning because India produced 1.75 million metric tonnes (MMT) of e-waste in 2023–2024, a 72% increase from 1.01 MMT in 2019–20. The Battery Waste Management Rules were introduced by the government in 2022 after realizing the urgency. In order to promote a circular economy, these regulations mandate that manufacturers and importers gather, recycle, and repair used batteries. Implementation, however, has been inconsistent. Throughout the value chain, there are still issues, ranging from non-standard battery designs and a dearth of tracking systems for repurposed batteries to ineffective logistics and inadequate domestic infrastructure for processing recovered materials.
The picture is further complicated by the economics of recycling, particularly for low-return chemistries like lithium iron phosphate (LFP). Stakeholders in the industry also contend that enforcement is lax. For example, in an interview last year, Gaurav Dowlani, CEO of battery recycling company LICO Materials, pointed out that the environmental compensation imposed on non-compliant producers is only a small portion of the price of a new battery. This enables manufacturers to choose not to comply with recycling requirements with little financial repercussion. Formal recyclers are deprived of the used batteries they require to function profitably, and an informal market flourishes where safety and environmental regulations are weakly enforced. Collectively, these factors have ensured that India’s battery recycling ecosystem remains largely informal which is a dangerous mismatch for country aiming to leverage electric mobility for achieving sustainability.
The lack of suitable infrastructure for recycling is also a significant underlying issue. Black mass, a powder from recycled lithium-ion batteries that contains valuable metals like lithium, cobalt, graphite, and nickel, was recently classified as hazardous waste and its export was restricted by the government as part of India’s efforts to secure key minerals. These metals are essential for the production of batteries for renewable energy storage and electric vehicles. India still lacks the necessary infrastructure, though, to recover these materials and recycle black mass in a safe and effective manner. Currently, only a handful of Indian recyclers have the technological capacity to process black mass, and even their capabilities are restricted. Due to insufficient policy support and high capital investment requirements, scaling up continues to be difficult. On the other hand, most ecosystem participants continue to use rudimentary techniques, which leads to less-than-ideal recovery of vital minerals. Weak collection methods and the lack of standardized procedures for battery waste segregation exacerbate this issue and make material recovery even more difficult. In fact, a recent report backed by EU-India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership and PwC, a closed-loop battery recycling system that guarantees ongoing recycling and material reuse is strongly needed to minimize environmental harm and increase supply chain resilience. According to the report, approximately 95% of used batteries in India are either processed by the unorganized sector or dumped in landfills, even though the country has an estimated formal recycling capacity of 83,000 tonnes annually.
Ultimately, India must make sure that the quick EV push is not pursued at the expense of causing yet another long-term environmental hazard if it is to achieve true sustainability and environmental protection. It will be crucial to plan for lifecycle management, which includes strong black mass processing, formalizing recycling procedures, and coordinating across the ecosystem. Important industry participants believe that e-waste systems like the Digital Deposit Refund System could greatly increase recycling rates. Customers can be encouraged to return used goods for official and safe disposal by attaching a refundable deposit. This strategy is in line with the more general idea that industry and consumers must actively cooperate for recycling to be effective. A number of additional complementary actions are also essential. Increasing public awareness and engagement, addressing the high capital expenditure required for recycling infrastructure, establishing a consistent and reliable feedstock (currently hampered by weak collection mechanisms), harmonizing policy implementation across states, and accelerating research and development into effective, scalable recovery technologies are some of these. Focus on tracking systems for repurposed batteries to achieve effective logistics is also crucial. The essence of the solution lies in a multifaceted approach: Educating and raising consumer awareness, encouraging responsible disposal during both the production and consumption phases, and empowering workers in the unorganized sector through formalization and training.
The article was published with Business World on October 24, 2025.
