Conclusion 112

The Committee heard that at present, the UK is not maximising the recycling of EV batteries. The UK also has insufficient capacity to recover critical materials from batteries and retain them in the UK. This is for three reasons: (1) the current Waste Battery and Accumulator Regulations 2009 stipulate that only 50 per cent of an EV battery needs to be recycled meaning material is lost or wasted; (2) the UK currently has no capacity to process black mass which is instead exported for processing, together with the critical materials it contains; (3) shredding to produce black mass is itself an inefficient process that does not optimise the recovery of critical materials. The UK needs to improve its capacity and standards for EV recycling to support UK manufacturing demand and to aid in their compliance with EU battery regulations.