Recycling

Recycling

Market | Regulatory Drivers

Market | Regulatory Drivers

The European Commission’s legislative minimum threshold targets encourages recycling. The US still has no obligation in place mandating battery recycling or recovery rates. However, China and Korea have advanced battery recycling regulations and efficiency mandates. Asia leads way in regulation With initial regulations since 2013, South Korea and China are leading the way in battery recycling. Current battery recycling rates are ~90%.

Advanced battery recycling regulation and efficiency

Since 2013, South Korea has established recycling rates of about 90% for batteries

China has a battery recycling rate of ~90%, recycling rates for materials of lesser importance such as Mn above 85%, as well as regulations for wastewater handling

EU revised its legislation The EU Battery Directive, stipulating recycling rates of 55% since 2006, required a new framework as the 2006 legislation was focused on consumer electronic batteries. With the Battery Regulation 2023, the EU set a relevant milestone for an EU closed-loop battery value chain.

New regulatory environment for battery recycling adopted in August 2023

Europe revised its Battery Directive from 2006 to expand the legislation to include EV batteries and to regulate the entire battery life cycle

The updated regulatory framework introduces end-of-life requirements such as collection and recovery targets, as well as extended producer responsibility

Revised EU Regulation sets recycling efficiencies of 70% from 2031 onwards and over 100% increase in recovery targets & minimum level of recycled material use by 2035

Clear targets enabling a closed loop With the EU legislation taking effect in 2023, it sets recycling efficiencies and rates for each critical material and defines a minimum target for use of recycled material for cell production.

Source: EU recycling market study Strategy& | PEM of RWTH Aachen University

USA still has no general obligation in place for battery recycling

Research projects, DOE’s LiB Recycling Prize, and programs like “Call2Recycle” all exist to advance the battery recycling ecosystem

The Critical Minerals and Materials Program indirectly impacts battery recycling by classifying materials for clean technology as critical

Extracted from the PDF; charts and images may read imperfectly.