Battery knowledge · Recycling and end of life
Recycling efficiency
The mass of a battery that ends up in useful products, as a share of the battery’s mass, calculated by the method fixed under the EU Battery Regulation; separate material recovery targets apply to lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper. Energy recovery by burning does not count. [1]
- Also called
- material recovery rate
- Unit
- %
Example
Recycling and end of life: an example situation
High mass recovery alone does not establish battery-grade purity or refining energy demand.
Read Recycling efficiency alongside Collection and recycling targets in this context. The EU Battery Regulation’s quotas: portable batteries collected at 63 % by 2027 and 73 % by 2030, light-means-of-transport batteries at 51 % by 2028, with recycling efficiencies of 65 % for lithium-based batteries by 2025 and 70 % by 2030, and material recovery of 50 % of lithium by 2027 rising to 80 % by 2031.
Use in Lemonergy
Distinguish recovered material from a qualified product.
This is a reference concept. No executable Lemonergy block has been verified for this term.
References & further reading
Technical references
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries
European Union / EUR-Lex · 2023
Technical reference · Battery sustainability, information, waste management and battery passport provisions. Consult the current consolidated text and applicable implementing acts.
Further reading on this topic
These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.
- Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Topic background · Battery construction, recycling routes and U.S. waste-management context.
- Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles
Gavin Harper et al. · Nature · 2019
Topic background · Reuse, disassembly and mechanical, hydro-, pyro- and direct recycling routes.