Canada had Large EV battery recycling plans, however with out laws it’s ‘Wild West’, professional warns
A few years ago, Li-cycle was one of the biggest players in the battery recycling of electric vehicle in North America, which provides one. Roadmap for a circular, permanent economy For electric vehicles.
But last month, the Toronto-based company filed for insolvency conservation in the US and Canada after years of struggling to get a facility from the ground in Rochester, NY Company said that the employed hub will actually be able to remove lithium and other important minerals from recycled materials to make new EV batteries.-A Crucial Step has not yet been found.
Bankruptcy is an indication, some experts say that the market cannot maintain industry without proper government regulation that provides encouragement and structure.
The EV battery exits over time, and with more than 600,000 EVs on the road in Canada, keeping those batteries out of the landfill – and fixing the valuable important minerals with them – will be necessary in the near future. But the regulation around the EV battery recycling is virtually no one in Canada, and industry and policy experts say without it, we will not be ready when EV battery waves hit the market.
“North America has no regulatory or policy rule in North America,” said Mark Winfield, professor of environment and urban changes at Toronto’s York University and Sustainable Energy Initiative of the school.
“This is a wild west,” he told CBC News. “Drivers who usually … provide stability like stability and the foundation for that kind of business is not just there.”
From recent report International Energy Association (IEA) and World Economic Forum Emphasize the importance of establishing government regulation to track and ensure the demand for recycled materials in EV batteries.
Canada is a federal government Made a plan There is no national structure for EV batteries after 2035 to get 100 percent zero-furnace sales for passenger cars, but after being too old to power to a car. There are no federal rules around EV battery recycling and BC, the only province that announced adjacent regulation, now says it is far from that plan.
Meanwhile, EV sales continue to climb in Canada, EVS has increased by 17 percent of all new cars sold in 2024. Last year, Canada had over 270,000 new vehicle registration battery-powered EVS or hybrid plug-in EVS.
Vinfield said, “Every EV that is sold, is eventually going to convert into an end-of-conjumer-life battery,” Vinfield said, in a decade, there will be “millions of millions” of EV batteries at the end of life globally.
The European Union determines the rules in 2023 that Canada could use as a model, saying Winfield, which includes requirements for recycled materials in the new battery starting in 2031, and expanded responsibilities for the lifetime of battery for producers.
1 November 2024 Report How to increase significant mineral recycling, IEA recommended providing clear, long -term rules, which is noted that “it is important to instill confidence in investors and recycling companies.”
Maria Kelher, an environmental advisor who previously worked with the environment and climate change on the management of EV battery recycling, said some rules would promote investment and help to increase commercially participating projects in Canada and North America.
“If the government says that you have recycled materials (in a new battery), it provides certainty to recyclars, as companies buying products have to buy their products,” he said.
“So it runs the market.”
How EV Battery Recycling works
Recycling lithium-ion battery that power EVS occurs in two stages. First, the battery is cut into a substance called black mass, which contains important minerals such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium. Then, minerals are extracted from black mass, refined and sold to make new batteries.
This step is where Kelher says recycling can be really attractive
“The key is to sell in the battery supply chain,” he said, given that the recycled material extracted from the black mass must be of frequent high quality for manufacturers to use it. “If you can do it, it’s fantastic.”
Recyclic Battery content of Cubek and BC is one of the recycling features in Lithian Technologies Canada at the Inc., which has started producing black mass from EV batteries in recent years.
And Ontario -based Electra Battery Material is conducting a successful recycling test from 2022, but has not yet reached commercial production. They are targeting to build a new plant In a joint venture With three fire groups at Northern Ontario, they say that in 2027, the eV battery can start recycling.
But the removal of minerals from black mass to create new batteries is mostly centered abroad, especially in China and South-East Asia where EV battery recycling industry has increased with manufacturing.
Giving a second life to the battery
Kelher believes that there is still a lot of time for the market before requiring regulation in Canada.
The EV battery was originally predicted for the last eight years, but now, they have a lifetime of 12 to 15 years in vehicles. According to industry reports and experts, they can also retain 80 percent of their capacity after use in vehicles, and 10 more for life to 10 more years.
The same Vancouver-based moment is trying to get a partnership with vehicle manufacturers and dealerships to reproduce the old EV batteries for use in energy energy storage systems.
Moment Energy co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Sarine Ratan, told CBC News that he was already looking at the ramp re-preparation, and expect the first peak to start in 2030.
Ratan said, “To be really streamlined for this, I think having a federal policy will lead to a long way,” it is necessary that it is not leaving the revival step.
Finally, Kelher says that the regulations are not required until the EV battery recycling the recycling market develops more safe supply, she says anything, “until you have a scale, until you have enough batteries at the end of life.”
But Winfield argues that we need to move to the infrastructure to deal with the battery designed to enter the recycling market in waves.
Based on EVS’s annual new vehicle registration in Canada since 2011, and a vehicle will be at least 93,000 EV batteries that require recycling up to 2040, with 500,000 ready between 2040 and 2045.
“I don’t think there is no excuse to not be ahead of this,” Winfield said. “This will be a monumental lack of foresight.”
So what are Canadian governments doing?
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECC), in an email statement, told CBC News that the EV battery is to manage the provinces and regions to manage at the end of their lives.
The ECC pointed to the BC’s 2021 announcement that it would add EV battery to its extended manufacturer responsibility program by 2026, which would require EV automekers to arrange for recycling or recycling their batteries.
Except BC, CBC News said that it is no longer adding EV battery to the program till 2026.
The provincial ministry of the Environment and Parks stated that the change came to light “after consultation with the change” and “fast -developed electric vehicles (EV) battery markets” after consultation with industry and other affected parties. It also stated that it could “detect further consultation,” but when regulation can be considered, not providing a new timeline for this.
There is a push in Quebec to find new technology that can help recycle the material found in a rechargeable battery, such as electric cars and e-bikes.
ECC also pointed to a voluntary battery recovery program launched in Quebec in 2023. This program Consumers allow the vehicle to reach the manufacturers who will pick up the dried battery and arrange the next stages.
Quebec considered adding EV batteries to an extended manufacturer responsibility program in 2021, but after receiving the response from the industry, the province said that it left the idea. According to an email statement, the province also organized two workshops to detect “how the region should be regulated” in 2023 and 2024.
Ontario, in which EV is one of the highest -adoption rates in Canada, told CBC News that it does not plan to include EV batteries in its manufacturer requirements because they “have been diverted from landfills through voluntary initiative.” The Ministry of Environment, Protection and Parks said that it would “continue to monitor management activities” to see if the rules should be introduced in the future.
In Canada, the automakers and industry players say that they are already arranging recycling on their own-most EVs offer a country-wide recovery of battery, and many have participated with recycling plants for battery Shreeding. However, without inspection, the success of these initiatives is not clear.
European Union rules can provide ‘structure of stability’
Vinfield says that the government’s reactions are “really quite shocking,” and shows that the situation is worse in 2023, when he first worked on a report assessing the lack of regulation.
He wants to see Canada following the leadership of the European Union, which added the requirements for the Carbon Footprint declaration for the EV battery in 2023, expand the productive responsibilities and introduce “battery passports” to set a transparent digital record for the life cycle of each battery.
It also applied the minimum requirements starting in 2031 how much recycled materials should be included in the new battery.
“It provides a structure of stability to the sector, a group of rules that say,” Yes, this type of services are going to be required, there are rules around them, “Winfield said.
“There is no viable business model, without a regulatory structure around it.”
