The hoped success of the EV Industry will make recycling a more profit driven industry

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Recycling has the potential to reduce primary demand of metals considerably over the next ten years. While supply chain issues caused by geographical or political factors affected some critical metals, the focal point is recycling within future planned developments. Local recycling of battery metals has and will continue to boom. Critical metals and minerals present us with a problem, the perceived risk that demand will exceed supply.

Virgin critical metals (raw unprocessed) are harvested from very few places, making them rarer as time passes. Canadian, Russian, Latin American and African sources are limited due to the strategic and political situation within each region. Russia is at war, as are African and Latin nations experiencing civil and guerrilla warfare within areas where you often find these metals. These regions are located in: Northern Ontario (Canada), isolated regions within jungles, and mountain ranges in nations without the finances to harvest them, relying upon foreign investment, technology and control. This creates political problems regarding real and perceived colonial finances and management.

The demand for several transition metals is forecasted to skyrocket in the next 20 years by more than: 40% for copper and rare elements, 60-71% for nickel and cobalt, and more than 89% for lithium. The World Bank has projected a rise in production of: 965% for lithium, 585% for Cobalt, 383% for graphite, 247% for Indium, and 179% for Vanadium by 2050. The World Bank has stressed the need for recycling many of these metals found to be very durable, but also futuristically limited in supply.

Recycling and repurposing have been stalled by past and present barriers, such as the lack of profitability tied to the practice. EV’s (Electric Vehicles) have made the practice of processing and reclaiming: cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel, along with other valued materials like: copper, aluminum and graphite spent on batteries profitable. Recycling these and other materials is becoming a critical part of the supply chain as we transition towards a low carbon economy.  The Report “Reducing new mining for electric vehicles battery metals,” has gone so far as predicting the demand for virgin materials will drop in total demand: 25% for lithium, cobalt and nickel by 35%, and copper by 55% by 2040.

A typical EV’s battery can provide power for a distance between 200,000 km to 250,000 km. After a battery loses 20% of its initial capacity it becomes unfit for use within a vehicle. Rather than disposing of these batteries, their parts are recycled and repurposed for stationary energy storage to be used in: utility-scale grids, building and telecommunication tower storage, which demands far less current density from the battery. Recycling these components will reduce the pressure upon mining firms to produce manageable levels of metal and minerals.

The hoped success of the EV Industry will make recycling a more profit driven Industry. The batteries that presently exist will create a needed source for recycled parts. By 2030 over a million EV batteries will have reached their end of life cycle, with their injection into recycling processes. By 2025 about 75% of spent EV batteries will be reused in secondary life solutions. This recycling and repurposing of lithium for example, will be a boom to the financial markets, where the global lithium-ion battery recycling market will grow from $4.6 billion in 2022 to $22,8 billion in 2030.

India and China will dominate the recycling market due to its mature and large reuse and refurbishing sector for portable electronics. Concern for the storage of unusable, unrecyclable materials, often toxic to the environment will create and demand regulatory management on a global scale. Today, in many parts of the undeveloped world, large-scale dumping of toxic, contaminating materials occurs within hidden natural places, illegally managed by corruption and organized criminality. The World Court and the United Nations have made the eradication of these practices primary policy.

An entirely new supply chain within the greater global supply chain is developing, one of recycled and repurposed materials. The development of batteries has pointed to a time in the near future where lithium batteries can be maintained for over 7-8 years at a time. While the lack of recyclable feeder stock (material parts) is limited, the proposed development of the EV sector will accelerate global recycling into a mega industry benefiting most of the globes population over time.