Batteries have become essential for the clean energy transition. They power everything from electric vehicles, scooters and bikes to digital devices, and are essential to store energy from intermittent renewables.
As the demand for batteries as clean energy solutions grows, so does the need for effective battery recycling to ensure a sustainable and competitive industry. A new series of studies by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) addresses the collection, classification and recycling of waste batteries, and the recovery rates of different materials.
Recycling for sustainability and strategic autonomy
Increased demand for batteries means increased demand for the raw materials they contain, like cobalt, lithium, nickel, and copper. The demand for lithium, for example, is expected to grow 21 times by 2050. In most cases, the extraction and refining of these materials involves high environmental and societal costs. This makes it especially important to extend the life cycle of batteries and ensure the highest degree of circularity of waste batteries.
But the positive effects of material recycling go beyond protecting the environment. The EU depends on non-EU countries for the raw materials in batteries, so reusing and recycling them helps the EU keep a competitive advantage on the market and helps prevent possible shortages in the supply chain.
Battery collection: better data and clearer targets
An ideal battery management and recycling system begins as soon as a battery is no longer usable. After their use, batteries should be properly collected and sent for end-of-life treatment. This would help maximise appropriate waste management and make it easier to direct the batteries to the most suitable circular strategy according to their characteristics and potentialities.
The increased lifetime of batteries influences the volume of waste batteries available for collection. Additionally, circular strategies such as remanufacturing and repurposing extend battery lifetimes, delaying their disposal as waste. At the same time, a significant number of batteries are not properly collected, reducing the overall volume available for recycling.
With this in mind, the JRC study on appropriate collection rates for waste portable and light means of transport batteries suggests adopting a new methodology that takes into account fast-developing and previously unregulated technologies such as lithium-dominated light means of transport (LMT) batteries or batteries extracted from smartphones, laptops and other portable devices. This will help better reflect the real flows of waste batteries available for collection and hence calculate a collection rate which reflect the real volumes of collected batteries to then be sent to waste treatments.
List of waste
To bridge the gap between the ever-evolving battery market and the existing regulations, the JRC has published a report with a newly revised “list of waste”. The document aims to update the EU’s waste classification, to better reflect the kinds of battery waste handled today and in coming years, and the diversity of waste streams from end-of-life of batteries.
By classifying most waste batteries as “hazardous”, JRC experts also hope to support higher standards of environmental protection when battery waste is processed.
Recycling in and out of the loop
Another important step taken by the JRC scientists is directed towards calculating recycling rates in a coherent way across the EU. The JRC report makes some explicit suggestions on how to calculate recycling efficiency and material recovery rates for cobalt, copper, lead, lithium, and nickel.
If adequately done, recycling battery materials isn't just a win for the battery industry. The newly published study shows that high-quality recycling isn't limited to the "closed-loop" process of turning batteries back into new batteries, but that batteries can be recycled into valuable materials and products that are, in turn, also recycled at their end-of-life.
However, the study highlights some important improvements needed for this kind of recycling to be effective. It recommends clearly defining terms like "black mass" and "impurities" to ensure consistent understanding, as unclear definitions could make recycling less effective.
A focus on lithium-based batteries
Until now, calculation methodologies, lists of waste or recycling calculation rules hadn’t included lithium-based batteries at their core. As a result, they no longer reflected the market dynamics and knowledge in battery technologies, where this kind of battery is becoming more and more prominent.
This new JRC over-arching approach makes it possible to positively contribute to the deployment of a circular, sustainable, innovative, competitive, and resilient battery value chain in the EU.
The goal of the JRC’s work on batteries is to achieve a consistent and complete approach that will help keep materials and components of waste batteries in the economy and will allow import and export of waste flows in/outside the EU and OECD. Efficiently closing the loop will help the EU battery value chain to not only be resource efficient but also more competitive.
Background
The JRC contributes to joining the dots of the end-of-life phase of batteries and to increasing the circularity of waste batteries by defining clear rules for collection targets and recycling efficiency targets, while monitoring their movement through appropriate waste codes. The JRC will continue supporting the implementation of the Batteries Regulation and will publish further technical proposals on other aspects of the battery life cycle in the coming months.
These JRC reports are part of a more comprehensive JRC set of reports supporting the implementation of the new Batteries Regulation, addressing performance and durability requirements of batteries, removability and replaceability of portable and e-scooters and e-bikes batteries, and safety standards for stationary battery energy storage systems, as well as life cycle carbon footprint.
Related links
- Recycling efficiency and recovery of materials: Technical suggestions for the rules for calculation and verification of rates for recycling efficiency and recovery of materials of waste batteries
- Technical specification for a harmonised methodology to calculate appropriate collection rates for waste portable and Light Means of Transport batteries: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC137863
- List of Waste: Technical recommendations for the targeted amendment of the European List of Waste entries relevant to batteries
- Performance and durability : Performance and Durability Requirements in the Batteries Regulation
- Removability and replaceability: Technical input for the Guidelines on removability and replaceability of portable and Light Means of Transport batteries.
- Foresight report: Supply chain analysis and material demand forecast in strategic technologies and sectors in the EU – A foresight study
- Safety standards: Overview of battery safety tests in standards for stationary battery energy storage systems
Details
- Publication date
- 12 December 2024
- Author
- Joint Research Centre
- JRC portfolios
