【By Liu Bai, Observers Network】"When electric vehicle batteries in a certain place in North America are discarded, they may come to this desert's sand and shrubs, gaining a new life."

An article published by the Washington Post on October 29 focused on a lithium-ion battery recycling factory in Nevada, pointing out that the American industry is still in its early stages, facing challenges such as reduced policy support and reliance on Asian companies for refining minerals. China leads globally in this field, and American companies hope to emulate China to build a similar battery recycling industry system.

This recycling plant belongs to Redwood Materials, an American company, and is the largest lithium-ion battery recycling facility in the United States. In this "battery graveyard" spanning 32 acres (about 129,000 square meters) under a pale blue sky, all kinds of used batteries from rechargeable devices are stacked, sorted, and neatly arranged for storage.

Redwood will eventually break down these batteries into basic components, extracting valuable metals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt, and then making new batteries. With the surge in global demand for rechargeable batteries, such recycling plants are expected to become important sources of raw materials.

Once metals are mined from the earth, they can be recycled almost infinitely. People dream of a future where new batteries are almost entirely made from the remnants of old batteries.

In this vision, China is leading the way.

Inside the warehouse next to the Redwood recycling plant, stacks of old batteries from electric vehicles and charging devices are piled up.

Data from Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, which analyzes battery supply chains, shows that China has more than 50 recycling plants comparable in size to the one in Nevada. Recycling companies provide about one-tenth of the lithium and nearly one-fifth of the nickel and cobalt for China's battery industry. Chen Yuyu, chairman of Chinese battery giant CATL, predicted that by 2042, half of CATL's lithium use would come from recycling, without the need to mine new mineral resources.

Globally, by 2040, recycling companies could meet about one-third of the battery industry's needs for lithium, nickel, and cobalt.

However, the battery recycling industry in the United States is still in its early stages. Many of Redwood's competitors are struggling, especially after the Republicans abolished the Biden administration's support policies for electric vehicles and battery manufacturing. Moreover, the recycling process still requires transporting materials back to Asia to integrate them into new batteries.

Most lithium-ion batteries in the United States are recycled, said executives from Redwood Materials, who stated that the company processes 90% of the batteries. Approximately 60,000 tons of used batteries circulate annually at the desert site in Nevada. Most of them are waste generated by battery factories—usually 10% of raw materials become scraps during production. Redwood also collects old mobile phones and other electronic products from electronic waste collection bins across the country.

The company representatives said they hope more of their business will come from electric vehicle batteries. Each electric vehicle battery is essentially a well-sealed package of metals and minerals worth about $2,000. Currently, electric vehicle batteries account for less than a quarter of Redwood's business.

"We founded Redwood very early," said JB Straubel, founder of Redwood and co-founder of Tesla. He established the recycling materials company in 2017, anticipating the wave of discarded batteries that would follow the rise of electric vehicles.

"We saw the huge opportunities of the future, and now we are in the middle of this transformation," he added.

A worker at a battery recycling plant in Covington, Georgia, loads used power batteries into a crusher.

Currently, most of the electric vehicle batteries that Redwood recycles come from cars sold about seven years ago, when electric vehicles accounted for only 2% of new car sales. Since then, that proportion has grown to about 9%, meaning more high-value batteries will be available for recycling in the future.

Redwood sells the minerals extracted from used batteries to Asian companies, which further refine them into pure materials for making new batteries.

But Redwood hopes to further expand the industrial chain, converting the recovered minerals into "positive electrode active materials," which are a major component of battery costs.

China has built recycling centers where surrounding factories disassemble batteries into black powder, extract key minerals, refine them into high-quality battery materials, and then assemble them into new batteries.

"Their goal is to build an industry system similar to China's," said Beatrice Browning, head of battery recycling technology research at Benchmark Minerals Intelligence.

"Secondary use makes perfect sense," said Professor Zheng Chen of the Department of Nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego. "Many old batteries are still intact, so using them first and then recycling is wise."

With the vigorous development of industries such as new energy vehicles in our country, the comprehensive utilization industry of power batteries has grown rapidly. Relevant government departments have introduced a series of policies to support the development of the lithium battery recycling industry, including subsidy policies and standard conditions, to guide the market towards a healthy and orderly development path.

A white paper jointly released by research institution EVTank and Yiwu Economic Research Institute titled "Industry White Paper on the Development of China's Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling, Disassembly and Secondary Utilization (2025)" mentions that according to the planned goals of various enterprises, China's lithium-ion battery recycling capacity is expected to reach 110.92 million tons per year by 2030. EVTank predicts that by 2030, China's lithium-ion battery recycling volume will reach 42.46 million tons.

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