LABRI

Lead-acid batteries are the main use of lead globally. However, unsafe recycling of used lead-acid batteries (ULAB) poses major human health risks, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Recyclers seldom adopt adequate safety controls, leading to the contamination of air, water and soil and exposing workers and surrounding residents to dangerous levels of lead. This lead exposure leads to severe health risks, including neurological damage in children. Lead exposure is estimated to cause IQ loss, behavioural disorders, and over 1 million deaths annually. Despite this, the problem of ULAB recycling remains largely neglected and unregulated in many countries.

In our first year of operation LABRI hopes to:

• Partner with a government - Establish a partnership with a government in our first country of priority to implement policies that will improve the quality of ULAB recycling.

• Collect data on the problem - Collect local, country-specific data on the scale and harms of LAB recycling in at least two countries and share those insights with government and civil society stakeholders.

• Generate evidence on solutions - Model the impacts of recycling process improvements on human health, through desktop research, expert engagement and in-country observation.