The spent lithium-ion battery market may be small at the moment but China is already cornering the market, making news the country’s Hainan Province is aiming to build a recycling network unsurprising.
The province wants to build a recycling network for used batteries from new energy vehicles (NEVs), according to the provincial department of industry and information.
Collection and use in secondary applications of decommissioned NEV batteries will be encouraged, with efforts made in traceability, recycling, safety and environmental management.
Maintenance sites are expected to be set up based on existing sales outlets and will be responsible for the repair, replacement and recycling of old batteries, reported news outlet Xinhuanet.
Hainan plans to phase out sales of internal combustion engine vehicles throughout the province by 2030, including government cars and buses.
The news was unsurprising because, back in July, BEST reported how Asia had cornered the lithium-ion battery recycling industry in 2018 with an 87% market share.
In total, 97,000 tonnes of lithium-ion waste batteries and production waste was recycled last year— 67,000 tonnes was completed in China and 18,000 tonnes in South Korea— by firms ranging from small laboratory plants to full-scale factories.
The figures were released in The State-of-the-art in Reuse and Recycling of Lithium-ion Batteries– A Research Review report commissioned by The Swedish Energy Agency.
Report author Hans Eric Melin said at the time “because the recycling rate of lithium-ion batteries is low in Europe it does not mean that the recycling rate is low globally”.
