Study Quantifies Economic, Environmental Benefits of EV Battery Recycling
What you’ll learn:
- A circular battery economy—one in which end-of-life batteries are repurposed, reused, or recycled—can help strengthen the electric-vehicle supply chain.
- Recycling batteries is expected to add $11B to $40B to the global economy.
- As the battery reuse/recycling industry matures, it will reduce emissions related to EV production.
As commercial-scale recycling lithium-of based batteries begins to ramp up, a recent study by the Rocky Mountain Institute shows that the emerging industry is already beginning to help shrink the cost of EVs and energy storage systems. It’s also reducing manufacturers’ dependence on fluctuations in the availability of raw materials.
The study, titled “Battery Recycling: How Accounting for Social and Environmental Benefits Boosts Returns,” studies three specific metrics of the benefits generated by battery recycling:
- Financial metrics: Includes profit pools from a typical recycling facility that uses hydrometallurgical processing and performs both shredding and refining.
- Environmental metrics: Measured through reductions in emissions, land use, and water use.
- Social metrics: Measured using the income from the average number of jobs created per ton of recycling capacity and the resulting economic growth.
The study doesn’t fully explore the economic uncertainties created by recent tariff disputes and the threat of export embargoes imposed by hostile nations that control large fractions of the world’s supply of essential battery materials. Still, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that investing in the “circularization” of the battery supply chain will yield multiple benefits, according to the report.
