A visitor to Samsung SDI Co.’s exhibition booth at InterBattery 2021 in Seoul looks at an electric vehicle battery pack on June 9, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea aims to raise the rate of recycling by designating scrapped electric vehicle (EV) batteries as a recyclable resource, exempting them from certain restrictions.
The Ministry of Environment introduced plans for promoting the circular economy centering on recycling scrapped EV batteries at the Economic Regulation Innovation Task Force meeting on Tuesday.
The government announced that it will designate scrapped EV batteries as a recyclable resource by amending the Framework Act on Resource Circulation to include a section about the preliminary recognition of certain waste as a recyclable resource without a separate application procedure.
Once the waste is designated as a recyclable resource, it is no longer regarded as waste, which exempts it from the restrictions set forth by the Waste Control Act.
The government also plans to amend the Motor Vehicle Management Act to require batteries to be registered separately when registering a new EV, and manage the lifecycle record of batteries through a public database.
The database will be made available in part to insurance companies and related industries. The government aims to set up a system in which batteries and cars are distributed separately in order to promote recycling and leasing.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
