From Risk to Reform: Highlights from the ProBaMet Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Project in Nigeria

As lead-acid batteries continue to play a vital role in transitioning economies, the Partnership for Responsible Battery and Metal Recycling (ProBaMet) was launched to drive reform in one of the sector’s most critical and under-addressed challenges: the unsafe and highly polluting recycling of used lead-acid batteries (ULABs) in low-and-middle income countries (LMICS). The project concluded after two years of impactful implementation (2023–2025), marking a significant step forward in responsible battery and metal recycling in Nigeria.

One of the key success factors of this rather short project was clearly the previous experience from former projects we could bring in as well as cooperation between all relevant stakeholders: local civil society and authorities as well as European NGOs and the industry working together towards one goal: Continuous and sustainable improvement.

The presentation will show the difficult balance between risk and reform and why our lead industry should keep on trying to find it.

Presenters

Franziska Weber

Head of Platform Lead, WVMetalle Service GmbH

After studying business administration, Franziska Weber worked in various positions in the metal industry for over 20 years. The last 11 years of this were spent at the international car battery manufacturer Clarios (formerly Johnson Controls / Varta). In addition to her main role in governmental affairs, she was responsible for reorganizing the compliance department and later, as press spokesperson, for internal and external communications at the European plants. She then took over the implementation of the sustainability management system for the EMEA headquarter and production sites. In 2021, she switched from Industry to Association as Director of Sustainability and Raw Materials at WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle, before taking over the lead of the newly established Plattform Blei (Platform Lead) in 2023. An initiative of the WVMetalle representing the lead producing and processing industry in Germany. WVMetalle speaks for the economic policy concerns of the non-ferrous metals industry with 650 companies in Germany and a turnover of 75,7 bn Euro.