Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department: Three projects related to recycling retired electric vehicle batteries have been approved, with a total investment of over 12 million Hong Kong dollars.

On January 21st, the Secretary for the Environment of Hong Kong, Wong Kam-sing, stated in a written response to Legislative Council members that research on promoting electric vehicles and the secondary use of electric vehicle batteries has been identified as a priority research topic under the Low Carbon Green Innovation Fund's green transportation category. The fund has approved three research projects related to the recycling of retired electric vehicle batteries, covering applications such as the secondary use of electric vehicle batteries, with funding totaling over 12 million Hong Kong dollars. Wong Kam-sing mentioned that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government and the Guangdong provincial government established a special task force on "Zero Waste Bay Area" in January 2025 to enhance policy coordination, technology exchange, and collaborative projects to improve solid waste management capabilities. The task force has initiated discussions on regional resource recycling cooperation, waste management policies, and is exploring initiatives to promote coordination of regulations and market connectivity between the two regions, as well as collaborative disposal of different recyclable materials, including the transformation of retired electric vehicle batteries into recycled black powder materials. Furthermore, the Hong Kong government is consulting with the industry on the Producer Responsibility Scheme for electric vehicle batteries, exploring the establishment of a product tracing system and the potential secondary use of ideal condition retired batteries. The government aims to consult the Legislative Council Panel on Environmental Affairs on the Producer Responsibility Scheme by 2026. Simultaneously, the first large-scale electric vehicle battery recycling facility in Hong Kong is under construction in the EcoPark, with related companies expecting it to be operational by the first half of 2026, converting retired batteries into recycled black powder for supply to the mainland and surrounding regions. This facility not only promotes the development of the electric vehicle battery recycling industry but also enhances Hong Kong's role in the regional green industry chain, serving as a good example for mutual cooperation in environmental protection industries in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Wong Kam-sing also mentioned that in the past three years (from 2022 to 2024), around 160 metric tons of end-of-life lithium batteries from vehicles were processed by licensed disposal facilities in Hong Kong before being sent to recognized disposal facilities overseas for recycling. However, due to the possible storage of a certain amount of retired batteries by the industry for later processing, the figures may not fully reflect the total number of retired batteries generated by electric vehicles in Hong Kong.