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Partnership for Battery Action (Pb Action)

1 in 3 children (~800M) in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are lead-poisoned, resulting in over 5 million deaths and $1.4 trillion in lost productivity globally every year. While many common sources of lead poisoning, such as leaded gasoline and paint, have been prioritized by public and civil society leaders, unsafe used lead-acid battery (ULAB) recycling has been neglected, despite growing evidence of its harm. We are taking action to eliminate over 80% of the world’s unsafe ULAB recycling by 2040 through three activities: 

  1. Closing critical knowledge gaps about ULAB’s contribution to lead poisoning
  2. Piloting solutions to increase safe recycling of ULABs tailored to local contexts
  3. Working with local leaders to scale solutions long-term

GDI’s role

After two years of research and analysis in the lead poisoning space, GDI is launching Partnership for Battery Action (Pb Action) to fill a critical void in eliminating lead poisoning from unsafe used lead-acid battery (ULAB) recycling. Pb Action’s first big initiative will be to map and evaluate ULAB recycling facilities in low-resource settings to support market-shaping efforts and technical assistance that will increase the profitability and sustainability of safer ULAB recycling facilities. Pb Action will also be working with leading researchers to answer vital questions about ULABs’ contribution to lead poisoning and what can be done about it by 

  1. Developing a global action-oriented research agenda
  2. Mobilizing resources and researchers to prioritize this area of work 
  3. Becoming the go-to hub for solution generation to address lead poisoning from ULABs

Partners