The director of the India Lead Zinc Development Association has expressed his disappointment that his country is not included in international discussions around updating rules on managing waste lead-acid batteries.
L Pugazhenthy, an industry veteran known as Pug, told BEST he was “very disappointed”. Small and large countries are included on the United Nations’ Basel Convention small intersessional working group (SIWG) looking to update the technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of waste batteries.
He said: “I’m very, very disappointed to see, small countries they were all there and China is there and many other developing countries are there. And India does not find a place. They’re not there even as an observer.”
A single contact for the Basel Convention in India is listed from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change – but not as member of the SIWG or observer.
The outcome of the SIWG March meeting is going for consideration by the 14th meeting of the Open-ended Working Group, to be held in June in Geneva. New guidelines are expected to be agreed at the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (COP) in 2025. Any new guidelines covering lithium-ion and other battery chemistry will be dealt with at a later COP, according to the UN.
Asked if the UN should invite someone from India to join the SIWG, Pug said: “They should. We consume about 1.5 million tons of lead in this country for battery manufacture. And growing by leaps and bounds, and there’s nobody from India to talk about legislation. Not only me. Regulatory bodies are there. They should be there.”
Even government ministries should be represented in that kind of international forum and technical discussion, he said.
India updated its battery waste management rules in 2022, which covers all battery chemistries. Pug said India would follow any new international regulation. Ther big recycling companies are all aware of India’s battery recycling legislation and regulation, he said, adding that the informal sector has now shrunk to about 30% of the total recycling industry.
The Basel Convention secretariat has been asked for comment.
