Follow-up on “Dangerous Workshop for Disassembling Power Batteries”: Xinxiang in Henan Province to Hold a Thematic Meeting to Discuss Work for Their Inspection and Rectification:
On December 26th, the relevant department of Xinxiang Municipal Committee in Henan Province responded to the investigative report “Dangerous Power Battery Disassembly Workshop” published by The Paper. According to the staff of the department, Xinxiang Municipal Committee and government attach great importance to this issue. The city’s leaders have held a special meeting to gather environmental protection, industrial information, market supervision and other related departments, as well as the county and district leaders mentioned in the report, to arrange for the next step of investigation and rectification work.
“Investigation should be conducted wherever necessary,” said the staff. Once the relevant issues are verified, they will be dealt with according to laws and regulations. The principal leaders of Xinxiang County in Xinxiang City specially went to the workshop mentioned in the report for an on-site investigation. Currently, the workshop has been shut down, and the investigation work is still in progress.
The undercover investigation also involved factories located in Dongguan, Guangdong. On December 26th, the relevant department of Dongguan Municipal Committee responded to The Paper that they had received the issues reflected in the report and were in communication with the city’s relevant departments and local management departments. As of press time, the reporter had not received a reply.
On December 25th, The Paper published a video report “Dangerous Power Battery Disassembly Workshop” and a written report “Disorderly Battery Recycling: Violent Disassembly and Reassembly of ‘Three No Products'”. In November, reporters from The Paper conducted an undercover investigation in 10 factories in Xinxiang, Henan, and Dongguan, Guangdong, and found that some retired power batteries flowed into some “small and scattered” workshop-style factories. Through methods such as “grinding” and dismantling for recycling, not only is the product quality无法保证, but there are also hidden safety hazards and environmental pollution problems in their production process.
Among them, at Anyang Recycling Resources Co., Ltd. located at Hehe Township, Xinxiang County, Xinxiang City, near the Wei River in Henan Province, reporters found that there were many old car battery chassis stacked in the open air of the “grinding factory”. Workers were heating a blast furnace indoors, and the dismantled batteries fell into the furnace through a conveyor belt with flames burning vigorously, with dense smoke and pungent odor in the working environment.
For such an environment, a surnamed factory leader laughed and said that their factory was still “clean”, and some workshops are so dirty that it is “black” when working. Another leader of the “grinding factory” said that they had just processed a batch of car chassis batteries. The brought batteries could be tested first. If they were still usable, they would be sold as good ones. If not, they would be smashed and ground by machines.
Reporters also saw many 18650 batteries being soaked in drums at a “grinding factory” in Hehe Township, Xinxiang County, with water bodies showing obvious yellow color. The factory leader claimed that battery processing did not generate wastewater, and the factory did not need wastewater treatment equipment, “The wastewater generated is also domestic wastewater.”
As it is located near the river, when it rains heavily, the “grinding factory” will be flooded. Reporters asked why the factory was built by the river. The factory leader said that if it was located in an industrial park and encountered inspections, it might face long-term closure. However, here it would only be closed for one or two days during inspections. “Once we pass the inspection, it’s done.”
The above-mentioned factory leader told reporters that a new reservoir was going to be built nearby, and the “grinding factory” would be demolished along with other areas. They claimed that new land could be easily found because they knew people in the local environmental protection department well and could deal with environmental issues smoothly.
An expert who has long studied power battery recycling issues told The Paper that these workshop-style “grinding factories” have serious environmental pollution problems. For example, to discharge faster, batteries are soaked in salt water. When the electrolyte flows into water bodies through this process, it pollutes water bodies. In addition, when batteries discharge, oxygen and hydrogen are generated. If there is a large amount of processing volume, there is also a risk of explosion during discharge with significant safety hazards.
In addition to this report also mentioned many retired power battery recycling and processing factories gathered in Tangxia Town and Qingxi Town as well as surrounding areas in Dongguan City Guangdong Province. In a workshop inside Haitang Industrial Park in Tangxia Town reporters saw workers using cutting machines to cut retired car batteries without any protective measures while other workers were dismantling batteries with hammers dressed casually. In an industrial park near Xingyuan Industrial Park in Qingxi Town another battery pack factory witnessed workers using electric tools to cut battery packs with sparks flying around on site. The factory leader said they sometimes used bloated batteries assembled batteries have no quality assurance but should work fine for three or five years.” The aforementioned expert on car power battery recycling said that based on footage captured by reporters these factories where batteries are dismantled and assembled have dirty and messy work environments lack safety protection measures and emergency safety equipment which results in poor management throughout the entire factory complex. The dismantling process itself is risky especially when it is not done properly which poses even greater safety hazards.” Reporters also noticed that many manufacturers in Tangxia Town and Qingxi Town claimed that their dismantled batteries could be used for electric vehicles without any guarantees but they could ensure capacity voltage consistency etc.
