According to data released in a new report by the International Energy Agency, the recycling rates of many metals critical for green energy transitions are low and have only risen slowly over the last years. Among clean energy minerals, cobalt and lithium as well as end-of-life nickel had the lowest recycled input rate, with the share of recycled material among the total implied supply of these metals at just 10.4 percent, 2.9 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, in 2023.
The IEA warns that without recycling, critical mineral supplies could soon be running low. Looking at announced projects, the organization estimates that by 2035, only 70 percent of copper demand will be met if current practices are continued. Battery recycling is also a growing challenge that China is at the forefront of tackling. As EVs become more common the potential of recycling materials from old batteries and parts will become very large, but need to be harnessed. The agency believes that by 2050, battery recycling could meet 20-30 percent of lithium, nickel and cobalt demand. It also touts the economic, environmental and energy security improvements that would come with increased recycling.
Cobalt and Lithium have rapidly become more important for the global economy due to their use in electric car batteries and electronics while copper and nickel also have important green energy uses that are now added to the multiple applications these materials have had previously. For end-of-life copper, recycling rates were already a little higher at 17.2 percent. Both copper and nickel are predominantly recycled straight from factories which produce scraps of these metals during their production processes. While this easy to use scrap has a decent recycling uptake, classic end-of-life recycling where a product that is no longer needed is reused is still less successful for these products. Adding these two types of recycling together, copper and nickel recycling has decreased on the whole since 2015 as end-of-life recycling rose slightly but "new scrap" recycling fell. Aluminium, finally, boast the best recycling rate at more than a third of supply from recycled sources.
