A peak industry body has revealed that insurance costs are a significant challenge for battery recycling businesses in Australia.
During an inquiry hearing on the EV (electric vehicle) transition on July 25, Association for the Battery Recycling Industry CEO Katharine Hole said insurance premiums for the sector had soared by 100-200 percent in the past 12 months.
While the CEO acknowledged that recycling lithium batteries was a dangerous business, she said a major reason for the insurance premium hike was the incorrect disposal of batteries and the fires that it was causing.
“How do you manage those batteries at the end of life? Where can they go because there’s not always solutions for drop-off that are convenient or easy for households,” she said.
While Ms. Hole said some companies had take-back programs for their products, it was hard for time-poor households to find out where to dispose of batteries.
A Crisis of Incorrect Battery Disposal
Australian Council of Recycling CEO Suzanne Toumbourou said there was a crisis regarding incorrect battery disposal in Australia.
“I'd say, at the moment, we’re in a crisis relating to incorrectly disposed of batteries that cause fires in all types of facilities, from bins to trucks to material recycling facilities to metal recyclers to e-waste recyclers to plastic reprocesses,” she said.
“These things find their way everywhere, including food and organic reprocessing, construction, and demolition reprocessing.”
Ms. Toumbourou noted that the definition of battery here was broad and covered a wide range of household products.
“When we say batteries, what we mean is anything that has or is a battery, not just your loose AAs,” she explained.
“I’m thinking [about] vapes, electric toothbrushes, kids’ light-up shoes, power tools, and household tools like vacuum cleaners that might recharge or any item that might make a sound or light up or have a movement that is self-generated.
“Very few of these types of items have a legitimate disposal pathway across the country.”
Regarding the consequences of incorrect battery disposal, the CEO said consumer batteries caused over 10,000 fires every year across Australia’s waste and recycling facilities.
Only 11 percent of those fires were dealt with by fire and rescue services, while the remaining were put out by the sector.
In addition, the damage from fires caused by incorrect battery disposal could be very devastating.
Ms. Toumbourou gave the example of a fire most likely caused by vapes that destroyed tens of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure at a recycling facility in Canberra.
Battery Recycling Is Not Self-Sufficient
At the same time, Ms. Hole told the committee that battery recycling was not a self-sufficient process but a cost for businesses doing it.“The biggest cost in battery recycling, particularly in Australia, is the logistics costs,” she said.
“It’s getting the battery back to the recycler, and they’re dangerous goods, so there’s no additional packaging and storage and fire protection requirements that come with that transport that adds to the cost.”
At the same time, Ms. Hole did not think there was a transparent process in Australia where manufacturers take back batteries at the end of their lives for recycling.
“Some companies will take it back. They’ve got consumer commitments that have to deliver net zero or circular economy, and they’re pretty clear about that,” she said.
‘[For] some other companies, it’s not so clear.
“There’s a number of companies who are really keen to do the right thing, but there are costs involved. And when there’s competition from cheap imports or other sections, it’s hard for them.”
