The environmental case of recycling begins not at the end of life, but at extraction. For energy transition to be genuinely sustainable, we should look closely at how materials are recovered, refined and reintroduced into the system. This is where battery recycling and critical mineral refining becomes core environmental infrastructure, writes Manikumar Uppala, Co-Founder and Chief of Industrial Engineering at Metastable Materials.
India is undergoing an energy transition from fossil fuels to electricity. Solar installations are spreading and electric vehicles are multiplying in the city streets. Battery energy storage systems are seemingly everywhere for steadying grids and we, as a country, are rightly celebrating this progress. But not enough people know what happens to the batteries once they die and are thrown away.
It is always worth taking a pause and reflecting on the irony at the heart of the clean energy revolution. The batteries that are at the core of energy transition, being the clean alternative to energy from fossil fuels, are manufactured from minerals extracted from earth and not always in a way that does not damage the environment. Lithium is pumped from brine aquifers in South America’s salt flats, cobalt dug from mines in Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is estimated that tens of thousands of children are working under dangerous conditions. The transition to clean energy has not eliminated extractive pressure on the planet, it has seemingly relocated and in some cases, intensified it.
But it’s not all bad news and this cycle can be broken. Battery recycling, critical mineral refining are quickly becoming the world’s preferred environmental interventions today. To understand this, one needs to understand the full picture of where the batteries come from, where they end up, what we lose and damage in the process, especially when we throw them away.
The Environmental Cost of Mining
The environmental case of recycling begins not at the end of life, but at extraction. For energy transition to be genuinely sustainable, we should look closely at how materials are recovered, refined and reintroduced into the system. This is where battery recycling and critical mineral refining becomes core environmental infrastructure.
Lithium production, concentrated in South America, consumes vast volumes of water; it can consume up to two million litres per tonne of lithium carbonate extracted and this is taking place in regions where there is already water stress. Cobalt mining, the majority (~80%) of which is taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is associated with severe environmental degradation and well documented human rights concerns. Nickel smelting generates greenhouse emissions and industrial waste. These are no marginal impacts. They are embedded in the upstream of all deployed lithium batteries.
This is the irony, also known as the clean energy paradox. Technologies meant to reduce emissions are dependent on environmentally and socially intensive supply chains. It is not that electrification is flawed as it is still miles better than fossil fuel dependence over its lifecycle but that its sustainability is incomplete. Recycling directly addresses this upstream burden. Even if it does not eliminate mining, it reduces the marginal demand for it. The material can remain in circulation through recycling and sourcing secondary materials, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and energy consumption by up to 75 to 80% compared to primary mining (IEA, 2025). Batteries carelessly discarded is a small but compounding ecological cost.
What Happens When A Battery is Thrown Away
If upstream extraction is one part of the environmental equation, downstream disposal is the other. Formal recycle rates are still minimal in India and majority of end-of-life batteries move through informal channels, dealers, and dismantlers.
Lithium-ion batteries contain metals that, if handled improperly, leach into soil and groundwater. Electrolytes are flammable and toxic. Informal processing also involves open burning sometimes, which is dangerous and releases hazardous fuels and effluents into the surrounding environments. These are predictable consequences but hardly acknowledged. It is an environmental burden, concentrated in peri urban clusters where regulation is weak. Also there is a parallel loss that receives less attention that is resource loss whereas for these same resources, India is completely import dependent. Loss of battery materials from formal recycling channels equals an economic and environmental loss borne by the country.
Why this Matters for India Now
India sits at the intersection of both problems of firstly absorbing the environmental burden of primary mining through import dependence; and facing the growing waste generation of end-of-life batteries at home. When it comes to India, we are not a passive consumer of the global clean energy transition. It is central to the country’s strategic growth and the decisions made now about battery waste will define the country’s trajectory for decades. India is the world’s 3rd largest automobile market and we are aiming for 30% market penetration of electric vehicles. It is also poised to be the world’s 4th largest consumer electronics market by 2027. Battery demand is projected to grow 30 fold between 2023 to 2035. By 2030, India could be generating over 50000 tonnes of end of life batteries. These are not abstract projections. The batteries are already here, and they are already dying. Every one of those batteries contains valuable critical minerals and every one of them is also a potential environmental hazard if not handled responsibly.
The government established the Battery Waste Management Rules 2022 established India’s Extended Producer Responsibility framework for batteries, putting the onus of handling the collection and recycling of batteries on producers. The government also launched the National Critical Minerals Mission, sanctioning Rs 1500 crore for recycling of lithium ion batteries and other streams of waste for extraction of critical minerals. These are all serious policy commitments and practice has to catch up. Informal sector still handles the vast majority of battery waste. Collection infrastructure mostly exists in urban centres. The damage is diffuse, chronic, and largely invisible in public discourse, but it is real and it is growing. Regulatory ambition and operational reality have to work in tandem.
So it is time India rethought battery recycling. It is not a niche environmental activity, it is not an afterthought to the EV revolution. It is strategic infrastructure that must be built today, just like solar panels and EV charging stations. A mature, technologically sophisticated battery recycling sector can offer benefits across sectors. Along with mining and pollution issues from waste generation, it can cut overall greenhouse gas emissions of the battery supply chain and help build a domestic source of critical minerals that reduces India’s exposure to global supply chains. Whether it is the environmental concerns, public health concerns, a strategic argument or an economic one, they all conclude on the same answer.
Saving the planet, in the context of energy transition is not just generating clean energy but also managing the materials enabling it. The real question for India’s energy transition is not whether we generate clean power but whether we manage the materials enabling it cleanly too. Battery recycling and critical mineral refining are where that question gets answered, and right now, the answer is still being written.