Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market is projected to expand significantly, growing from a valuation of USD 10.57 Billion in 2025 to USD 34.16 Billion by 2031, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 21.59%. This industry focuses on recovering and reprocessing spent energy storage units to extract essential materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel for reintegration into the manufacturing supply chain. The sector is primarily fueled by the rapid increase in electric vehicle production, which enhances feedstock availability, and by strict government mandates enforcing circular economy practices to secure secondary raw material sources independent of volatile primary mining markets.

However, the market faces substantial obstacles due to the high technical complexity and capital expenditures required for efficient metallurgical separation and safe logistics. The hazardous nature of spent batteries demands specialized handling, which inflates operational costs and limits market entry. According to the International Energy Agency, global battery recycling capacity was reported to exceed 300 gigawatt-hours annually in 2024, underscoring that while infrastructure development is substantial, it remains concentrated in specific regions as the industry strives to manage the escalating volume of waste.

Market Drivers

The rapid global adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) serves as the primary catalyst for the Global Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market by generating an exponentially increasing reservoir of feedstock. As the automotive sector shifts from internal combustion engines to electrification, the volume of battery packs reaching end-of-life is expected to surge, necessitating industrial-scale recovery operations to manage this hazardous yet valuable waste. According to the International Energy Agency's 'Global EV Outlook 2024' released in April 2024, global electric car sales approached 14 million in 2023, a trajectory that guarantees a sustained, long-term supply of spent units for the recycling sector.

Market expansion is further accelerated by the implementation of rigorous government regulations and recycling mandates that legally enforce material recovery to reduce reliance on imported minerals. Governments are establishing circular economy frameworks that dictate minimum recycled content in new batteries, thereby guaranteeing demand for secondary materials. For instance, the European Council's 'Critical Raw Materials Act' of March 2024 established a benchmark requiring at least 25% of the EU's annual strategic raw material consumption to come from domestic recycling by 2030, while the U.S. Department of Energy announced over $3 billion in funding in September 2024 to strengthen domestic supply chains through battery material processing and recycling projects.

Market Challenges

The immense technical complexity and high capital expenditures associated with metallurgical separation and safe logistics act as formidable barriers to the growth of the Global Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market. These challenges hinder expansion by elevating the break-even point for recycling operations, making them financially precarious without a consistent, high-volume flow of feedstock. Additionally, the rigorous safety protocols required to handle hazardous battery components inflate operational expenses, deterring potential entrants and limiting the scalability of existing infrastructure, which struggles to establish the dense processing networks necessary to compete economically with primary mining.

These financial and technical constraints lead to significant inefficiencies in material recovery rates, particularly for minerals that are difficult to separate. The high cost of advanced processing technologies often exceeds the market value of the recovered materials, causing valuable resources to be lost rather than reintroduced into the supply chain. Data from the International Energy Agency indicates that in 2023, the recovery rate of lithium from available battery feedstock was approximately 20 percent, illustrating how these ingrained technical difficulties and cost barriers severely restrict the industry's ability to fully capture and utilize the available waste stream.

Market Trends

To mitigate volatility and secure critical minerals, the industry is shifting toward closed-loop supply chains where manufacturers form direct partnerships with recyclers. These collaborations allow automotive companies to retain ownership of recovered materials, ensuring compliant feedstock for new cell production while bypassing mining bottlenecks. This trend is exemplified by major capital moves, such as Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. securing a $75 million investment from Glencore in March 2024 to develop its recycling capabilities, as reported by the Rochester Beacon, validating the move toward formalized material recovery partnerships.

Simultaneously, operations are depending heavily on pre-consumer manufacturing scrap as the primary near-term feedstock due to the extended durability of electric vehicles, which delays the arrival of end-of-life batteries. This lag in post-consumer volume has created a feedstock deficit for expanding infrastructure, forcing facilities to compete for gigafactory waste to maintain utilization. Highlighting this mismatch, Fastmarkets reported in July 2024 that U.S. shredding capacity was projected to reach nearly 230,000 tonnes in 2024, significantly exceeding the estimated 90,000 tonnes of available scrap and end-of-life supply.

Key Players Profiled in the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market

• Green Technology Solutions, Inc.
• Li-Cycle Corporation
• Glencore PLC
• Recupyl Sas
• Umicore SA
• American Manganese Inc.
• Metal Conversion Technologies LLC
• Retriev Technologies Inc.
• Raw Materials Company
• TES-AMM Pte Ltd.

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market, by Industry:

• Automotive
• Marine
• Power
• Others

Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market, by Technology:

• Hydrometallurgical Process
• Pyrometallurgy Process
• Physical/Mechanical Process

Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

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