According to a recent Reuters report, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is launching a recycling standard for the batteries of electric vehicles (EVs). As adoption of electric vehicles has been rising across the world, dead batteries in EVs will present a big problem and sustainable solutions for their recycling will be needed.

The move by the Ministry has apparently come in the wake of the fact that old batteries will likely come back in huge numbers as the country is witnessing an increasing adoption of EVs. Although there will be a fairly low number of battery packs at their end of life in the coming years, the scenario is expected to undergo a rapid change when new packs will be required for the vehicles presently being produced.

With battery recycling likely to become an important part of the EV supply chain in the future, the Chinese Ministry is evidently preparing for the situation by initiating a new scheme with EV manufacturers for recycling the batteries at the end of life.

In reporting the launch of the new scheme by the Ministry, Reuters has revealed in its report that a late Wednesday notice published by the Ministry on its website said that EV manufacturers will be encouraged by the cities and regions “to establish recycling service outlets,” and facilitate the building of “regional recycling systems” in cooperation with battery producers, scrap merchants and used car dealers.

Moreover, the Ministry also said that it would “strictly control the number of new enterprises involved in battery recycling and make full use of existing recycling bases in China.”