Recycling of electric vehicle batteries will contribute 84.5% of lithium in 2030 and the 60.2% that will be necessary for those produced that year, according to Recyclia.
Concretely, thanks to the recycling of lithium and other components, they will be valorized 9,400 tonnes of raw materials fundamentals that would make it possible to manufacture 33,000 batteries without needing to extract new resources of this type.
Aluminum and nickel
This is the conclusion reached in the entity’s V Annual Report on trends in the waste electrical and electronic equipment recycling industry (WEEE) and batteries in Spain.
At the same time, the text also indicates that this battery recycling activity, in addition to lithium, will provide the 7.4% and 9.5% tonnes of aluminum and nickel this will require the production of new devices in Spain within six years.
External dependency
Recycle indicates that currently Spain is “totally dependent” on the outside for the supply of certain fundamental raw materials such as aluminum or nickel and that the country’s dependence “is also strong” on metallic minerals (dependence rate of 68%); gold, silver and platinum (49%) and non-ferrous metals (33%).
To a lesser extent, we also depend on copper and zinc (14%). At the same time, he denounces the “high concentration of imports” and specifies that 85.5% of goldTHE money and the platinum and 68% of the nickel imported by our country comes from Morocco and Brazil respectively.
Green and digital transitions
In this context, the CEO of the entity José Pérez stated that the adoption of technologies that facilitate green and digital transitions are multiplying “extraordinarily” the demand for fundamental raw materials to implement technologies linked to renewable energies and sustainable mobility.
Faced with this demand, the recycling of WEEE and batteries is consolidated as “a key link for a stable and resilient supply chain in a market like that of the community which aspires strengthen its strategic autonomy in 2030“.
WEEE recycling rate
In addition to this, the report also updated the main data on the collection and recycling of electronic waste and batteries in our country with the latest available data, corresponding to the year 2021. Thus, it detailed that 413,300 tonnes of electronic waste were collected that year, 5% more than in 2020.
According to Recyclia, this represents 47.8% of the tons of electronic devices placed on the market over the previous three years (2018-2020), which places Spain ahead of neighboring countries like Germany (44.1%) and Italy (36.5%).
Waste growth
Furthermore, the growth rate of tonnes of this waste collected amounted to 11.32% between 2019 and 2021. In comparison, it was six tenths higher than the European Union (EU) average and It was only surpassed by that of Francewhere the rate was 17.46% during this period.
Likewise, the report confirms that the WEEE recycling activity in Spain had a gross value added (GVA) of 1.360 million euros in 2023therefore “it remained stable”. At the same time, it employed 23,500 full-time professionals and contributed 231 million euros to public coffers.
Finally, this affects the fact that almost all producers and importers of electrical appliances (98.9%) and batteries and batteries (96.7%) are attached to a collective system to fulfill their obligation to management of this waste.
