Battery Passport · Audit-grade Chain of Custody

Audit-grade chain of custody, by default.

Every handover. Every timestamp. Every signature. Every geo-tag. Captured at the point of movement and tied to the passport — not reconstructed after the fact.

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Section 1 — What this is

What "audit-grade" actually means.

Audit-grade is a high bar — much higher than the standard paper or PDF chain-of-custody most operators rely on. This section sets out what that bar looks like in evidential terms.

Placeholder Section will explain: what "audit-grade" means in evidential terms — captured at the point of movement, attributable to a named operator, time-stamped, location-stamped and digitally signed; the difference between a reconstructed paper trail and a contemporaneous digital record; the legal and evidential weight of digital signatures, timestamps and geo-tags; how this aligns with the workflow expectations of regulators, auditors and customer compliance teams; the difference between "we have the documents" and "we can prove who did what, when and where".
Section 2 — Why it matters for OEMs

Why audit-grade matters more than OEMs think.

The audit and inspection exposure of weak chain-of-custody, and why the EU 2023/1542 due-diligence workflow effectively requires this standard.

Placeholder Section will explain: the EU 2023/1542 due diligence requirements for end-of-life batteries and what the implementing acts are likely to require in practice; the audit exposure when chain-of-custody is reconstructed after the fact rather than captured live; the procurement and customer-audit pressure for evidential standards above marketing claims; the reputational risk of any passport claim that can't be traced back to a specific handover record; the litigation, regulatory and insurance implications of an incomplete chain of custody; how this differs between general waste and battery-specific waste.
Section 3 — How AnyWaste does it

How audit-grade evidence is actually captured.

The platform plumbing — digital signatures, timestamp standards, geo-tag capture, evidence retention, retrieval and tamper-evidence.

Placeholder Section will explain: digital signature standards used (signed payloads, attributable to a named user on a named device); timestamp capture and the source of trusted time (server-side and device-side); geo-tag capture at every handover point — pick-up, transfer, weighbridge, treatment, refining — using device-level GPS where available; evidence retention duration and how it aligns with regulatory record-keeping requirements; retrieval workflow — what an auditor, regulator or customer compliance team sees when they request a chain-of-custody pack; the tamper-evidence model — append-only records, signed deltas, audit log of any amendment.
Section 4 — What the OEM sees

How chain-of-custody is presented to the OEM.

The OEM dashboard view, audit-pack export, and the standard formats used when presenting evidence to a regulator, auditor or customer.

Placeholder Section will explain: the chain-of-custody timeline view in the OEM dashboard — every movement from collection through to refining, with signatures, timestamps and geo-tags; the per-passport audit pack export — a single PDF or JSON bundle showing the complete lifecycle of one battery, pack or batch; the regulator-aligned report format; the customer-facing evidence pack (what an automotive OEM, electronics OEM or downstream battery integrator can be sent to satisfy their own audit); the case examples (anonymised) showing how a regulator inspection or customer audit has been served from the platform.
Section 5 — Integration touchpoints

How chain of custody connects to the rest of the platform.

The chain of custody is the connective tissue between every other passport data point — the digital passport itself, the verified recycler network, the material recovery record.

Placeholder Section will explain: how every chain-of-custody event is bound to a passport identifier so movements can be queried by battery, by batch, by chemistry or by OEM; how every event is bound to a verified-recycler or verified-carrier record so the responsible operator is identified at every step; how the audit trail flows into the material recovery record at point of treatment, completing the loop; the API contracts for pulling chain-of-custody data into OEM PLM, ERP, sustainability and compliance management systems; how AnyWaste's Connected Supply Chain reuses the same audit-grade pattern for general waste movements beyond batteries.
Section 6 — FAQ

Frequently asked questions.

What if a driver or operator forgets to capture a handover at the point of movement?

[PLACEHOLDER — Answer will explain the platform's exception-handling workflow — provisional record creation, supervisor sign-off, audit-log capture of the exception, and how missed-capture events are surfaced in the OEM dashboard for transparency.]

Is the chain of custody designed around EU 2023/1542 due diligence requirements?

[PLACEHOLDER — Answer will use the safer compliance language: "designed around" and "aligned with the workflow of" the EU 2023/1542 due diligence framework, with explicit caveats that final implementing acts may require workflow adjustment, and that the OEM remains responsible for verifying suitability.]

How long are chain-of-custody records retained?

[PLACEHOLDER — Answer will explain the platform's retention policy, the alignment with regulatory record-keeping requirements (typically multiple years post-final disposal), the OEM's right to extend retention, and the tamper-evidence model around long-term storage.]

Can records be amended after the fact, and is that auditable?

[PLACEHOLDER — Answer will explain the append-only evidential model — original records cannot be silently overwritten; amendments are captured as signed deltas with author, timestamp, reason and audit log entry, visible in the OEM dashboard and exportable in the audit pack.]

What case examples are available for regulator or customer audit retrieval?

[PLACEHOLDER — Answer will provide anonymised case examples showing how the chain-of-custody pack has been used in real regulator inspections, customer audits and procurement evidence requests, including approximate retrieval time and the format delivered.]

Related — Battery Passport knowledge base

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Digital Passport

The digital battery passport, explained.

Identifier format, lifecycle data, interoperability with EU 2023/1542 — how the digital passport actually works on AnyWaste.

Read article → Verified recycler network

Verified recyclers. Verified outcomes.

How AnyWaste verifies the operators that handle your batteries — and why that's the foundation of credible passport claims.

Read article → Material recovery evidence

From battery to refined material.

Tonnage in, tonnage out, chemistry-specific recovery rates — captured at the recycler and refinery against the passport record.

Read article →

Talk to us about your Battery Passport programme.

OEMs, manufacturers and refiners — the regulation is coming. Have your passport infrastructure live before it lands.

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Guidance disclaimer. AnyWaste provides practical guidance and digital tools to support waste compliance and battery lifecycle reporting. Information on this page is for general guidance only and should not be treated as legal, regulatory or professional advice. References to the EU Batteries Regulation (2023/1542), DWTS, DIWASS and related frameworks describe the workflow the AnyWaste platform is designed around and aligned with — they do not constitute regulatory endorsement or a guarantee of compliance. Users remain responsible for verifying their obligations with the relevant authority and a qualified professional.