Li-Cycle Turning Refuse into Resource

Lithium-ion batteries seem to be everywhere from handheld devices to cars and trucks and homes. And as they end their lifecycle recycling them has become a challenge.

Li-Cycle is focused on lithium-ion battery recycling. Because batteries are a fire hazard and can be expensive to transport safely, Li-Cycle is collecting batteries at local facilities, which shred the bricks into three components: plastic casings, mixed metals (like foils), and active materials (like cobalt and nickel), a dust known as “black mass.” The company can sell the materials or send the materials to a central factory to extract the metals.

Li-Cycle currently has facilities in Ontario, Canada and in Rochester, New York, which can break apart a combined 10,000 tons of lithium-ion batteries each year. The company is planning to build an additional facility in Rochester, which will separate 25,000 tons of black mass annually into lithium, cobalt, nickel and other elements starting in late 2022.

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