Precious metal recovery specialists RSBruce have set up the UK’s first electric vehicle lithium-ion battery recycling service. Transport accounts for around a third of the cost associated with EV battery recycling and the firm says the ability to process materials locally is vital.

Sales of electric cars are growing bringing a corresponding rise in investment in battery production.

UK battery start-up Britishvolt recently secured £2.6bn of investment for a new “gigaplant” in Northumberland.

Nissan has also announced plans for a large-scale battery factory in Sunderland.

This rise in production brings recycling issues to resolve further down the line and up until now we haven’t heard of a great many projects here in the UK.

The most high profile project thus far is that being run by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel’s Redwood Materials in the US.

The firm recently revealed plans to start producing “precision battery materials” as part of its operations and says it will be able to reuse all of the lithium, copper, nickel and cobalt that it recovers from old batteries.

RSBruce’s is a far smaller operation but with the UK planning to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, and to phase out hybrid vehicles from 2035, infrastructure is needed.

Speaking to Electronics Weekly, Sam Haig, battery recycling manager at RS Bruce commented: “When it comes to recycling the batteries, we know most UK companies export their end-of-life units to Europe and other parts of the world for recycling and material recovery and as a result transport accounts for around a third of the cost associated with the service.

“At present there is no capability for lithium-ion battery recycling in the UK, and facilities are needed to address this growing challenge.”