Lithium Batteries and Electronic Waste: The Responsibility of the Local Authority
The Ministry of Environmental Protection's guidelines require authorities to reorganize for the collection, separation, storage, and disposal of waste electrical equipment and lithium batteries - including dedicated treatment of damaged batteries and examining the need for a toxics permit.
We help authorities understand what is actually required of them, map gaps, reduce risks, and build a clear and effective implementation process.
Why is this relevant now?
This is no longer just a recycling issue. It's a safety, liability, and risk management issue.
Waste electrical equipment and lithium batteries have become an operational and safety challenge for local authorities. Following the updated guidelines, the authority is required to ensure that collection, separation, storage, and disposal are carried out in a regulated and safe manner.
The practical meaning: You need to understand where to collect, how to separate, what to do with damaged batteries, who to divert, where to divert, whether a toxics permit is required - and how all of this translates into a process that the authority can actually operate.
אחריות תפעולית
Safety risks
Regulatory exposure
Defining a clear process between the Authority's departments, contractors, and implementing bodies.
Preventing improper storage, mixing currents, and improper handling of lithium batteries.
Preparation for the required requirements, documents, procedures and permits.
What is required from the authority?
The main requirements that the authority must prepare for
Sorting and separating healthy and defective lithium batteries
Establishing or operating designated collection centers for healthy batteries
Handling of damaged batteries in a staffed collection center and in accordance with legal requirements
Examining the need for a toxic permit
Storage in standard containers and in accordance with ADR guidelines*
Regulated evacuation to authorized evacuation destinations.
Writing procedures, work processes and dividing responsibilities among the parties involved.
* ADR – acronym for Accord relatif au transport international des marchandises Dangereuses par Route, the European Convention for regulating the transport of dangerous goods by road, which includes guidelines for the packaging, storage, marking and transportation of dangerous goods, including lithium batteries.
Where do the authorities usually get stuck?
The gap is not only on the ground. It is between the directive and the implementation.
In most authorities, the problem is not a lack of willingness to act, but a lack of clarity: who is responsible, what must be done, what can be solved using existing suppliers, where a permit is needed, and what is required to avoid turning professional guidance into yet another “open file” that is spread between departments.
There is no complete mapping of collection points - it is not always clear where batteries and electronic waste are actually collected.
There is no sufficient separation between battery types - especially between healthy, damaged, swollen, or suspicious ones.
There is no end-to-end closed storage and evacuation process - what happens from the moment the resident dumps until authorized evacuation.
There are no clear procedures for field workers and contractors - and when there is no procedure - everyone improvises. Sometimes it works, sometimes less so. When it comes to safety - no risks are taken!
What do we do for the Authority?
We translate the requirements into a work plan that the authority can implement.
Grow Group accompanies authorities through a professional, short, and structured process to prepare for the new requirements in the field of waste electrical equipment and lithium batteries. The guidance combines regulatory understanding, operational experience in the field, and the ability to build a solution that fits the authority's reality.
Mapping the current situation and gaps against requirements
• Review of existing and planned collection points
• Examination of operational and safety risks
• Assistance in understanding the need for a toxics permit and in preparing the application, as required
• Building a work process for the authority, contractors and evacuation agencies
• Writing procedures and defining areas of responsibility
• Connection to implementing bodies, authorized entities and relevant suppliers
• Operational recommendations for phased implementation
Proposal for Operations/P&A/Environmental Quality Managers
Let's start with a brief gap check.
We offer a short, no-obligation, professional diagnostic call, the goal of which is to understand where the authority stands today and what the first steps should be.
In the conversation we will examine together:
What exists in the Authority today?
Where are batteries and electronic waste collected?
Are there procedures, suppliers, and evacuation processes?
What gaps may create operational or regulatory exposure?
What should you do as a first step?
Why Grow Group?
Regulation, Operation, Area
Grow Group brings experience working with recycling plants, logistics, regulatory requirements, and complex operational processes. Our advantage is not only knowing the requirements, but knowing how to transform them into actions, procedures, and workflows that the authority can implement.
We are not here to produce another document for the drawer. We are here to help the authority understand what is required, close gaps, and move forward in an orderly, efficient, and safe manner.
Our Team
Merav Nir
Has been involved in the fields of sustainability, innovation, and leading projects to create environmental impact for nearly 20 years. Has experience in promoting environmental regulation, implementing environmental measures in organizations, and international collaborations in the fields of the circular economy.
Dror Tevet
Served for about 3 decades as a senior manager at the ICL Group. Expert in enforcement, regulation, corporate governance and global industrial operations. Dror serves as the company's CEO.
Ofir Avidan
He served as CEO of the "Neot Hovav" Local Industrial Council, and until recently was CEO of Bat-Re Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Ltd. Ofir is an expert in industrial development and implementation of environmental projects under government regulation and environmental enforcement, and he has specific experience in electronic waste recycling, with an emphasis on lithium-ion batteries.
Avi Lavie
Senior consultant specializing in logistics and quality management systems in large organizations such as the military, the Ministry of Defense, Ampa, Clalit Health Services, high-tech companies, etc. An industrial and management engineer by profession and a senior officer in the Armed Forces in the past. Avi is a senior reviewer for various ISO systems and holds a certified green building facilitator certificate from the Standards Institute of Israel.