Why battery recycling will eventually become more interesting than reuse

The Netherlands is a leader in recycling waste cars. According to figures from Auto Recycling Nederland ARN, 98.7 percent of the vehicle weight is currently converted into used parts and reusable residuals. “What’s left of your car at the end of the chain fits in one shopping bag,” says ARN spokesperson Martijn Boelhouwer.

Battery packs last longer than expected

With electric cars it is a different story. Not only is a drive battery composed very differently, it also accounts for a significant part – usually more than a quarter – of the vehicle weight: that’s where the beautiful 98.7 percent goes. Because the battery packs last longer than many expected, the supply of items for recycling is still low; After all, the first really usable electric home-garden-and-kitchen cars hit the road just over a decade ago, but with the growth of recent years that will soon be a different story. This opens the door to a new industry, which becomes all the more important when you know that batteries are full of rare raw materials, for which we are currently largely dependent on countries with which geopolitical relations are sometimes somewhat difficult where the environment and human rights are concerned. are trampled upon. An ugly example of this is cobalt, more than half of which is extracted from the ground in the Republic of Congo using forced and child labor. An average drive battery with 50 kWh storage capacity contains 12 kg of that material, 12 kg of nickel, 33 kg of graphite, 11 kg of manganese and 4 to 8 kg of lithium. The European Union has therefore defined a battery regulation: currently 50 percent of the battery must be recyclable, but that will increase to 90 percent and even 95 percent from 2031.

EV importer arranges for battery collection

In our country, ARN is the party that is working on this, says Martijn Boelhouwer. “Three quarters of importers already leave that to us. Another part of the brands arranges it themselves. As far as ARN is concerned: when a battery comes on the market, it is registered. An amount between 10 and 60 euros is transferred, the amount of which depends on the weight of the battery. The importer thus arranges for the battery to be collected and recycled at the end of the journey. At the moment we don’t see that much and if a battery arrives, it is as a result of a recall or an accident. Last year we processed 495 batteries, approximately 113 tons, of which we were able to recycle more than 80 percent.”

Boelhouwer distinguishes two routes: “First second use. A battery that is no longer suitable for use in an EV is a waste product, but the importer is still responsible for it. The moment he got the second use However, the producer responsibility of the original importer ends. This is passed on to the person who puts the battery back on the market, for example in a whisper boat or for energy storage.” By the latter, Boelhouwer refers, among other things, to the use of batteries to replace generators, as storage of previously generated solar energy in households and companies and at charging stations.

Certain battery modules are increasingly being overhauled

According to Boelhouwer, the relative number of battery packs that are discarded has decreased somewhat recently, because overhauls are possible more often. “For example, it may happen that the BMS (battery management system, ed.) says that certain modules need to be replaced, so that the entire battery pack is not lost. The other route, about 75 percent and the percentage is expected to grow, is recycling and then you are talking about extracting the reusable substances, including cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel. This is currently happening in Germany, Belgium or Scandinavia, because there is no factory in our country that can do that yet. But there are a lot of developments going on that will help us get that industry into the Netherlands. With this we will soon be able to do what we call the blackmass, which contain all those rare earth materials, can be reused in the smartest way possible. Fortunately, this development is happening very quickly.”

Reuse will not be possible in the long term

That is why Boelhouwer and his colleagues think so second use, which in itself sounds very attractive, will not be possible in the long term. “That sounds crazy, because recycling propulsion batteries is currently very expensive, not to mention collection, transport and, in the case of critical batteries, special packaging. But because technology is moving so quickly, we think that recycling will eventually become more interesting. Also because a battery that now comes from a car that is almost ten years old is actually already outdated.”