Cirba Solutions considers national battery recycling regulation crucial for the future of the sector and its ability to meet the challenge of advancing technology.
The focus on the electric vehicle (EV) movement has helped to bring battery recycling into the mainstream conversation. While the first lead-acid battery was recycled in 1912, today’s lithium-ion battery eclipses other battery chemistries such as nickel-metal hydride or alkaline. Rechargeable batteries have been a catalyst for a technology evolution that has enabled batteries to be reduced in size with a higher energy density that reduces waste through reuse. However, each evolving technology comes with its challenges.
Regulating the sector
Alternative legislation and battery recycling regulation have been explored to keep pace with the advancement of engineering. Collaborating with government, public, and private sector groups is crucial during the evolution of the growing sectors, including battery recycling and sustainability.
One of the more well-known efforts in the battery industry is the Battery Passport in Europe. This global reporting framework governs the rules around measurement, auditing, and reporting of environmental, social and governance (ESG) parameters across the battery value chain. It evolved from the Circular Economy Initiative Germany and had 11 consortium partners from industries across science, technology, and more. This three-year project started in 2022 and is expected to enter the first quarter of 2025. The Battery Passport has significantly impacted the battery industry and has helped spur battery recycling to become more commercially adopted in domestic regions.
Another notable legislative body of work was the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed into law in August 2022 in the United States. The purpose of the IRA was to attempt to de-risk investments into the battery supply chain, grow critical value-added areas, and reduce the reliance on foreign sources of critical minerals and battery processing.
The IRA took monumental steps forward in the United States’ approach to sustainable content by placing new guidelines regarding battery requirements over the next decade. In contrast, the EU Battery Regulation will mandate comprehensive content requirements, including carbon footprint tracking, battery materials and composition reporting, circularity and resource efficiency information, and more to move toward a circular economy.
Cross-industry collaboration for battery recycling regulation
These are not the only efforts to support enhanced safety and compliance in the battery market. In January 2024, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which leads regulations within the universal waste and focuses on improving safety standards, announced a new cross-industry workgroup to focus on proposed guidance for labelling and collecting end-of-life lithium batteries.
This announcement occurred at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), where groundbreaking technologies and global innovation are featured. The EPA held a panel with various industry experts from the Clean Vehicles and Infrastructure Advocate, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Samsung Electronics, Call2Recycle, EPA officials and a leading battery recycling group, Cirba Solutions.
While many battery recyclers have emerged in the last few years, only one has the industry experience with transporting and processing evolving battery chemistries in the market, Cirba Solutions. Throughout the rapid technological evolution of batteries, Cirba Solutions has been steadfast, adding services and processing offerings to match the needs of the battery recycling market. Working with teams that have experience on the front lines is critical to ensure that the proposed guidance will be practical and helpful to reach the objective set forth, which is to increase safety around end-of-life batteries and national battery recycling rates.
One additional area that the EPA has announced work on is the proposed guidance to separate lithium batteries from their current universal waste guidelines to establish a new and distinct category of universal waste that will be tailored to lithium batteries. This proposed guidance is expected to be released in mid-2025.
A national strategy
Federal agencies are not the only groups looking to increase their attention on batteries. New Jersey was the first state to pass an extended producer responsibility law specific to EVs in the United States. Having been signed into law in January 2024, the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Battery Management Act requires battery producers of ‘propulsion’ batteries to create battery management plans and submit them to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection for approval.
The increased use of lithium batteries has helped garnish more attention on battery recycling. This growing part of the battery supply chain has transformed what used to be finite resources into sustainable critical minerals that can be infinitely reused through recycling. This battery type has also demonstrated the need for stronger attention to safety in any battery size when in use or being recycled. This is why agencies across the globe view battery recycling-related activities as vitally important and why there will be continued regulatory focus.
Please note, this article will also appear in the seventeenth edition of our quarterly publication.
