"Need to Enact Battery Reuse and Recycling Promotion Act... Import Regulations Should Also Be Eased"

The 9th Trade and Industry Forum Held

There have been calls to urgently establish related laws and systems to systematically foster and industrialize the reuse and recycling of electric vehicle batteries, which are expected to increase rapidly in the future. It was also pointed out that the import barriers for key raw materials derived from used batteries should be lowered.

At the 9th Trade and Industry Forum held on the 28th by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and the Korea Industrial Federation Forum under the theme of "Securing Raw Materials for Used Battery Recycling," Kim Hee-young, a research fellow at KITA, proposed in his presentation the enactment of the "Electric Vehicle Battery Reuse and Recycling Promotion Act" (tentative name) to comprehensively manage batteries for reuse and recycling purposes in order to establish a domestic used battery collection system.

Researcher Kim emphasized, "Used batteries should be redefined by categorizing them according to their purposes such as remanufacturing, reuse, and recycling, and detailed policies suitable for each purpose should be developed and supported." He argued that the stages of battery collection registration, transportation, performance inspection, price assessment, classification, and transportation should be systematized. He also added that a battery recycling raw material management center should be operated to comprehensively grasp the sales, distribution, reuse, and recycling status of used batteries.

Additionally, Kim suggested considering the implementation of a policy to ease the import of waste batteries to secure overseas battery recycling raw materials. In Japan, for example, the domestic Basel Act has been amended to ease the import of electronic waste, thereby expanding the acquisition of metals and recycling raw materials. Kim also raised the need to subdivide HS codes according to the purposes of used batteries.

At the forum, Kim Seung-tae, head of policy support at the Korea Battery Industry Association, pointed out, "Although there are numerous laws applied to tasks such as collection, storage, performance evaluation, and sale, as well as remanufacturing, reuse, and recycling, related systems are currently operated only for batteries subject to mandatory return by local governments." He stressed the need to establish a management system for used batteries that are not subject to mandatory return by local governments. In Korea, due to the revision of the Air Quality Preservation Act, the obligation for local governments to collect waste batteries from electric vehicles registered after January 1, 2021, has been removed.

In this regard, the Battery Alliance, composed of the Battery Industry Association, the three major battery companies, automakers, used battery specialized companies, the Korea Insurance Development Institute, the Korea Environment Corporation, and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, submitted a "Used Battery Integrated Management System Plan" to the government on the 14th. The industry proposed enacting the "Act on Securing Safety and Promoting Utilization of Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chains" to establish a private-sector-led integrated management system for used batteries. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to submit the bill to the National Assembly after consulting with related ministries based on industry opinions.

Jung Man-ki, vice chairman of KITA who attended the forum, suggested that regulations should be minimized until economies of scale are achieved to revitalize the used battery industry. Vice Chairman Jung said, "Korea has regulated used batteries as 'waste' so far," adding, "We need to create an environment where innovative companies can enter the market and reinvest in it."

Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) established a legal basis to promote the recycling of all batteries, including electric vehicle batteries, through the Battery Regulation that came into effect on August 17. This law sets annual battery collection rate targets and minimum recycled material usage ratios. It also includes the implementation of the Battery Passport. According to this law, EU member states plan to impose Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) on producers who first distribute electric vehicle batteries starting August 18, 2025. Producers can pay fees to a separate Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) to delegate this responsibility.

Based on the recently announced Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), the EU plans to introduce waste codes for lithium-ion batteries and black mass to strictly control overseas exports. The EU Battery Association (RECHARGE) and the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EURiC) have actively expressed their stance that battery scrap should be designated as waste.

The industrialization of waste battery recycling is also progressing rapidly. Five member countries in Europe have formed RENEOS, a specialized company for collecting used electric vehicle batteries. The previously established small battery collection alliance, EUCOBAT, is expanding its operations to include free collection, storage, dismantling, and transportation of electric vehicle batteries. Interzero Circular Solutions, a waste-specialized collection company, has established Simply Return, a recycling specialist company focused on lithium-ion and industrial batteries.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced in June plans to establish management measures for the collection and utilization of batteries for new energy vehicles. Japan, aiming to build a private-led recycling ecosystem, saw 30 battery-related companies establish the Battery Association for Supply Chain (BASC) in 2021.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.