Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified the Battery Waste Management (BWM) Rules, 2022 on 22nd August 2022, along with amendments thereof. These regulations apply to producers, dealers, consumers, and entities involved in the collection, segregation, transportation, refurbishment, and recycling of all types of waste batteries, covering portable, automotive, industrial, and EV batteries across chemistries including lead-acid, lithium-ion, nickel-cadmium, and zinc-based batteries.

Under the BWM Rules, 2022, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is mandated to develop guidelines for environmentally sound procedures related to collection, storage, transportation, refurbishment, and recycling of waste batteries. These Guidelines have been prepared considering the hazardous nature of waste batteries as defined in the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016.

The Guidelines apply to Recyclers, Collection Centres, Refurbishers, Producers, and Entities Involved in Transportation of waste batteries.

The Guidelines cover:

1. Producer collection mechanisms for fulfilling Extended Producer Responsibility obligations, including deposit refund systems, buy-back schemes, and take-back systems
2. Procedures for establishment and registration of Collection Centres by SPCBs/PCCs, including requirement to obtain CTE/CTO/Authorization under Hazardous Waste in the Green Category, submission of site plans, and filing of Annual Returns by 30th June each year as per Form 4 of the Hazardous and Other Wastes Rules, 2016
3. Requirements for location, accessibility, and facilities at Collection Centres, including drop points for portable/household/dry cell batteries, weighing equipment, record-keeping under Rule 20, fire protection systems, PPE requirements, and prohibition on dismantling/shredding/processing at collection centres
4. Storage guidelines specifying a maximum storage period of 90 days (extendable by SPCBs/PCCs under Rule 8), type-wise and kind-wise storage requirements, and specific storage container recommendations by battery type as set out in Table 1 and
5. Transportation guidelines specifying compliance with Rule 18 (transportation), Rule 19 (intimation to SPCB/PCC and manifest requirements), and provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, including packaging requirements, State of Charge limits for lithium-ion battery packs (below 30% of rated capacity) and requirements for accident reporting under Rule 22.

The document includes Annexure-I (Format for Maintaining Records of Hazardous and Other Wastes) and Annexure-II (Format for Reporting Accident).