UK ‘won’t meet EV battery recycling targets unless more facilities open’, says Veolia boss

The UK won’t have enough capacity to meet its electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling targets unless more facilities open, a waste management company has said. The current projections see that up to 350,000 tonnes of material will need to be processed by 2040.

Cory Reynolds, corporate affairs and communications director for Veolia said ‘There isn’t currently enough capacity in the UK to be able to process that material.’ Speaking at an Environment and Climate Change Committee meeting on Wednesday, Reynolds told members of the House of Lords more facilities would be required to meet future demand.

Reynolds said that ‘at least’ 10 times the number of these facilities, alongside ‘faster and more efficient planning permission’, would be required to free up more capacity for future recycling requirements and speed up development.

Veolia - one of the largest waste management providers in the UK - already operates a battery reprocessing facility in Minworth, in the West Midlands, where 5,000 tonnes of batteries are broken down and recycled. Reynolds added that ‘faster and more efficient planning permission given for these types of facilities’ would be required to speed up development and free up more capacity for future recycling requirements.

“It is worth saying that batteries within general waste streams at the moment are a huge problem for the waste industry,” Reynolds added.

“They cause regular fires, stopping our capabilities of processing waste and that’s not just [large] batteries, it’s small electrical batteries. So scooters, toothbrushes even as far as vapes.”