The Economics of Global and Australian Lithium Battery Recycling
The number of small handheld lithium batteries needing recycling in Australia in 2025 is approximately 5000T, but only about 15% of this is currently recycled.
A large contributor to this is that the cost to recycle lithium batteries can be up to $20/kg, with most NCM and LFP batteries being around $1-$8 per kg.
In comparison approximately 90,000T of lithium batteries are recycled in China with a 70% underutilization of processing plants that are paying equivalent of $1506-$5300AUD per T for lithium battery scrap (source).
Our goal is to make lithium battery "scrap" valuable enough in Australia that we can eventually replicate the 99% recycling rates seen in the lead acid battery industry.
Our company has the ability discount the cost on what ever the cheapest recycling rate is in Australia at any given time, as any recycling feedstock sent through us can have its net weight reduced through recovery of old cells, and pre stripped of contaminants such as plastics that degrade the recycled material quality making the final product received by the recycler of higher value.
What Happens to Retired Batteries
In Australia, lithium ion batteries that are put into commercial recycling streams will all eventually find themselves being shredded for their raw material worth.
The actual green house gas emission cost to produce a lithium ion cell varies between countries of manufacture but the process is described in this scientific report.
How we plan to do things differently:
We aim to allow more of the potential lifespan of batteries to be accessed through a second life scheme, thus preventing the resources of battery production being wasted and emissions being released, when batteries retire or are used in faulty equipment.
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