When an electric vehicle battery reaches the end of its life, this doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road for the battery. The rise in demand for electric vehicles and other various electronic products means that consumers usually dispose of their electronic products with normal household waste.
Batteries still have the possibility to be given a second life and as many industries are now understanding the need for sustainable and eco-friendly products, we must find a useful way to recycle batteries. The use of emission-free and safe recyclable solutions and technologies to reduce electronic wastage can also be used for recovering expensive materials used in battery production. These factors are expected to drive adoption of battery recycling solutions in various sectors.
According to the International Energy Agency, electric vehicles are expected to rise to as high as 245 million units by 2030 and while they have lots of environmental benefits, their batteries are very hard to recycle, but these companies are offering some of the best solutions to battery recycling.
- Redwood Materials
Redwood Materials is based in Nevada and is on its way to becoming the world’s leading battery recycling company. It is transforming the battery supply chain by offering large scale sources of domestic anode and cathode materials produced from recycled batteries, that go directly back to U.S cell manufacturers.
They take batteries at the end of their life and break them into their basic metals and will then rebuild those metals into cathode and anode products. Recently, Redwood has announced their next Battery Materials Campus in the heart of the “Battery Belt” outside of Charleston, South Carolina.
2. Li-Cycle
Li-Cycle is a global leader in battery resource recovery and the leading lithium-ion battery recycler in North America. The company has four operational Spoke recycling facilities in North America with the capacity to process 51,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery materials per year.
Li-Cycle has plans to expand its network in Europe as it aims to have a Spoke in Germany that hopes to be operational in the second half of 2023.
- Ecobat Logistics
Ecobat is a company that manages the collection and waste of battery scrap. Ecobat has a great collection system for lead-acid batteries, accumulators, and other types of battery chemistries, including lithium batteries, which plays a key role in European recycling which is beneficial to both people and nature.
It owns nearly 27 companies and offers its solutions majorly for the freight transportation arrangement industry.
- ReCell Center
ReCell Center was launched by the U.S Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office and is the first advanced battery recycling R&D center. The center aims to help the U.S compete in the global recycling industry and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign sources of battery materials.
The center is aiming to develop recycling technologies and in turn help reduce the cost of EV batteries and drive up the value in recycling EV batteries.
- Global Battery Alliance
The Global Battery Alliance is a public-private collaboration platform that was founded at the World Economic Forum in 2017 that aims to help establish a sustainable battery value chain by 2030. The GBA has a key vision to foster a circular, responsible and just battery value chain.
The GBA estimates that batteries could enable 30% of required cuts in carbon emissions in the two industries to reach the 2° goal of the Paris Agreement. They could also provide 600 million people with access to electricity and create 10 million sustainable jobs worldwide by 2030.
What are the benefits of battery recycling?
Batteries that are used and disposed of can lead to a large amount of electronic waste and therefore, finding news strategies to develop batteries that are highly recyclable can reduce this electronic waste after battery use. Furthermore, when batteries are disposed of, expensive elements stored in the battery can be wasted.
Recycling solutions can recover important metals to create new batteries and energy storage solutions. Decreasing the reliance on virgin materials will help slow down the depletion of raw materials from the earth’s surface.
The recycling of batteries has a positive environmental impact, as mining of metals used in EV batteries is an energy-consuming process and can emit sulfur oxide, which can produce acid rain. Recycling batteries will reduce the environmental impact caused by mining.
Recycling EV batteries has huge potential to reduce dependency on raw materials, improve the security of the supply chain and reduce environmental impact. As the demand for EV’s increases, companies must be more conscious of how they dispose of batteries. Through this new system and companies investing into new systems, we may be able to further reduce the human impact we have had on the environment and have less dependency on mining.
