In Depth: As Retired Battery Wave Approaches, China Moves to Clean Up Recycling

China is bracing for a wave of batteries coming to the end of their usable life, just as Beijing moves to strengthen oversight of its rapidly growing recycling industry.

In April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), together with four other government agencies, launched a nationwide crackdown on illegal battery recycling operations. The campaign, which runs through the end of June, was announced just weeks after new rules took effect requiring electric-vehicle (EV) makers and battery manufacturers to collect power cells that have reached the end of their life.