Battery recycling is expanding from established lead-acid collection into a rapidly growing market for electric-vehicle and energy-storage batteries. Global recycling capacity exceeded 300 GWh per year in 2023, while announced projects could push capacity above 1,500 GWh by 2030. The main challenge is not only building plants: future feedstock, collection rates, chemistry and regional access will determine how much material is actually recovered.
Contents
- Global capacity and feedstock
- End-of-life electric-vehicle batteries
- Recovered materials and circularity
- United States battery and lead-acid flows
- European Union collection and efficiency
- Targets and U.S. processing capacity
Global capacity and feedstock
The global battery-recycling footprint was already substantial in 2023, but it was concentrated in one country. Capacity exceeded 300 GWh per year, and more than 80% was located in China. Europe and the United States each held less than 2% of global capacity in the same year. These figures describe installed recycling capacity, not the quantity of batteries actually collected or processed.
The project pipeline points to a much larger industry. Announced projects could lift global capacity above 1,500 GWh in 2030 if they are completed on schedule. China would account for 70% of that announced capacity, while Europe and the United States would each account for about 10%. Those are forecasts based on announced projects rather than guaranteed operating capacity.
The future supply of material may initially lag behind plant construction. Battery-manufacturing scrap is projected to provide half of recycling-plant supply in 2030, while retired electric-vehicle batteries are projected to provide about 20%. In the IEA Announced Pledges Scenario, announced recycling capacity in 2030 could be seven times the available battery feedstock. This comparison is a reminder that capacity announcements and usable feedstock are different measures. IEA, Outlook for battery and energy demand – Global EV Outlook 2024; IEA, Executive summary – Recycling of Critical Minerals
End-of-life electric-vehicle batteries
The number of electric-vehicle batteries reaching the end of their first useful life is expected to rise sharply. Around 1.2 million batteries could reach end of life in 2030, increasing to around 14 million in 2040. The estimates refer to batteries, not vehicles, and are forecasts rather than historical counts.
The balance between feedstock and capacity changes over time. Available battery-recycling feedstock is projected to surpass announced capacity by 60% in 2040. Under the IEA analysis, recycling capacity in Europe and the United States would cover only 30% of feedstock in that year, while capacity in India would cover 10%. The implication is a potential regional processing gap even if global capacity grows quickly.
Electric-vehicle trade could also change where recyclable batteries become available. If electric-vehicle exports follow conventional-car export patterns, advanced economies and China could lose 25% of available battery-recycling feedstock by 2050, equal to 1 TWh. Developing economies could see a 50% increase, equal to 0.5 TWh, under the same assumption. These are scenario results, not observed transfers.
More than one in four cars sold globally was electric in 2025. That sales share expands the future pool of batteries that can eventually enter reuse or recycling, although the timing of end of life depends on vehicle use, battery condition and second-life decisions. IEA, Battery Circularity; IEA, Executive summary – Recycling of Critical Minerals
Recovered materials and circularity
Battery recycling is measured not only by capacity, but also by the materials that can return to manufacturing. In the IEA Announced Pledges Scenario, recycling could supply 20%–30% of global lithium, nickel and cobalt demand in 2050. With higher collection rates, recycled materials could supply 30%–40% of demand; with lower collection rates, the range would be 15%–25%. These ranges are forecast cases, not current recovery rates.
Reuse is another part of battery circularity. Reused electric-vehicle batteries could meet around 10% of global energy-storage demand in 2050. By that time, end-of-life electric-vehicle and storage batteries are projected to represent more than 90% of available battery-recycling feedstock.
| Indicator | Measurement or forecast |
|---|---|
| Lithium, nickel and cobalt supplied by recycling in 2050, Announced Pledges Scenario | 20%–30% of demand |
| Same materials with higher collection rates in 2050 | 30%–40% of demand |
| Same materials with lower collection rates in 2050 | 15%–25% of demand |
| Energy storage supplied by reused EV batteries in 2050 | Around 10% of demand |
Battery chemistry affects the material opportunity. Lithium iron phosphate batteries represented around 40% of electric-vehicle batteries deployed in 2023. Meanwhile, global battery pretreatment and material-recovery capacity grew 50% year on year in 2023, with China accounting for 80% of that capacity.
Innovation indicators also moved quickly. International patenting for battery-circularity technologies grew 42% per year on average from 2017 to 2023. The market value of recycled battery metals grew nearly 11-fold between 2015 and 2023. These figures show growth in technology activity and market value; they do not directly measure the recycling rate of batteries. IEA, Executive summary – Recycling of Critical Minerals; IEA, Battery Circularity
United States battery and lead-acid flows
U.S. lead-acid statistics provide a long-running example of battery collection, but they should not be treated as lithium-ion recycling statistics. The EPA estimates cover automobile, truck and motorcycle batteries in municipal solid waste.
The United States generated 2.9 million tons of lead-acid battery waste in 2018. Lead-acid batteries represented 1.0% of total U.S. municipal-solid-waste generation that year. EPA recorded 2.87 million tons recycled and 30,000 tons landfilled in 2018, and estimated a 99% recycling rate for lead and polypropylene casings.
Earlier estimates show the scale of the flow over time. U.S. lead-acid battery generation was 3.02 million tons in 2010, with 2.98 million tons recycled. In 2000, generation was 2.28 million tons and recycling was 2.13 million tons. The figures are estimates for their stated years, not a single consistently measured lithium-ion series.
| U.S. lead-acid measure | 2000 | 2010 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generation | 2.28 million tons | 3.02 million tons | 2.9 million tons |
| Recycled | 2.13 million tons | 2.98 million tons | 2.87 million tons |
The high 2018 recovery result applies to lead and polypropylene casings from lead-acid batteries. It does not establish a recycling rate for lithium-ion batteries, portable batteries or electric-vehicle packs. U.S. EPA, Durable Goods: Product-Specific Data
European Union collection and efficiency
EU portable-waste-battery collection increased from about 50,000 tonnes in 2009 to about 117,000 tonnes in 2023. Collection fell by 2,000 tonnes between 2019 and 2020, showing that the long-term increase was not uniform every year.
Policy targets rose during the period. The portable-battery collection-rate target was 25% for 2012 and 45% for 2016. In 2023, 17 EU countries reported collection rates of at least 45%, while seven reported rates below 40%.
The Eurostat collection rate is calculated against average sales over the reference year and the preceding two years. That denominator matters when interpreting percentages, because a collection rate is not simply the share of all batteries ever sold that was recovered in the same year.
Lead-acid recycling efficiency was more consistently high. All EU countries achieved at least 65% lead-acid battery recycling efficiency in 2023. Hungary, Italy and Slovakia each reported efficiency above 90%, while 15 EU countries reported results between 80% and 90%.
Eurostat recycling input data do not distinguish portable batteries from industrial or automotive batteries. Therefore, portable collection figures and broader recycling-input measures should not be combined as though they described the same battery stream. Eurostat, Waste statistics - recycling of batteries and accumulators
Targets and U.S. processing capacity
The EU battery regulation sets different recycling-efficiency targets by chemistry. For 2025, the targets are 75% by average weight for lead-acid batteries, 65% for lithium-based batteries, 80% for nickel-cadmium batteries and 50% for other waste batteries. By 2030, the lead-acid target rises to 80% and the lithium-based target to 70%.
Material recovery has separate milestones. The regulation sets 2027 targets of 90% for cobalt, copper, lead and nickel, and 50% for lithium. These are regulatory targets, not claims that every facility or battery stream already achieves those percentages.
U.S. capacity figures add another view of the domestic market. Facilities identified in an Argonne-based inventory had capacity to reclaim 35,500 tons of battery materials in 2023. Facilities planned for the next two to four years were expected to add capacity to reclaim 76,000 tons. U.S. intermediate-processing facilities reclaimed nearly 175,000 tons of material in 2023, and facilities planned for the following years were expected to handle nearly 198,000 additional tons.
The reclaiming figures and intermediate-processing figures describe different stages or facility groupings, so they should not be added together. The planned values are outlook figures and depend on projects being completed and operating as expected. European Union, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries; U.S. Department of Energy, FOTW #1350