Page 66 from: Recycling International July issue | 2021 + TOP 100!

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new LiFe For cAr bAtteries
You can hardly talk about cars without
mentioning batteries, argues Christian
Winkler of TES. He cites market data
suggesting there will be six million
electric vehicle (EV) batteries retiring
each year by 2030. TES uses proprie-
tary in-house technology, including
auto-punching machines and shred-
ders, to recycle car batteries. ‘We
break batteries into high-quality black
mass and recover nickel, lithium and
cobalt to reuse in the forward manu-
facturing supply chain,’ Winkler says.
TES was originally an IT lifecycle anal-
ysis company, latterly moving into
e-scrap recycling and data destruc-
tion. ‘Battery recycling is now a big
part of our business,’ he explains. The
business model for battery recycling is
simply too good with a 30% cost
advantage of second life batteries
compared to virgin ones. ‘You need a
reliable supply in this business niche
and to be able to match supply and
demand. But I’d say that, based on
the facts and figures, the future of the
EV recycling market looks bright.’
TES currently has 45 recycling plants
in more than 20 countries and is active
in China. ‘Asia is an important region
for us,’ Winkler explains. ‘We just
opened a new battery recycling facili-
ty in Singapore which went live in
March. It uses a hydro metallurgical
process.’ The Singapore facility can
handle 14 tonnes of lithium-ion bat-
teries, the equivalent of 280 000 smart
phones, every day. The site boasts a
90% recovery rate and extracts bat-
tery materials with 99% purity.
‘Another exciting new project is an
energy storage station for Indonesian
islands,’ he goes on. ‘These are
sourced from production waste so we
have detailed information about state
of health and battery cells.’ The sta-
tion will be linked to a virtual network
system called Circunomics, developed
by TES engineers, meaning product
data is stored in and accessible via the
cloud.

better, sAFer guideLines
Winkler is pleased that, just as the ELV
Directive is being updated, a new
Battery Directive will be announced.

‘fall off the radar’ each year, exported
to distant countries.
These statements sparked a passion-
ate debate. ‘I am afraid that the car
industry will move out of Europe, just
like with the steel industry,’ observes
conference panellist Roger Burri,
owner of Metal Depot Zurich. ‘We
have too many levies as it is and more
are coming. As of this year, we have
to pay for non-recycled plastics.
What’s next? It’s becoming very unat-
tractive to do business in Europe.’
In his view, EU policies are totally con-
tradictory. ‘There are conflicting inter-
ests – especially regarding exports,’
Burri says. ‘When we review statistics,

we are quick to express concern when
the figures don’t add up the way we
like. The term we use is ‘missing cars’.
But who says these cars are missing?
We have free trade. We know where
they are. They go to repair workshops
and traders in developing countries.
They’re not waste. They may be to us
but not to everyone. We are not the
god of Africa.
Amélie Sophie Salau, environmental
policy director for the European
Automobile Manufacturers’
Association, insists free trade is best.
‘We have to be able to export cars if
we want but we also need clarity. The
main thing is monitoring movement of

ELVs in and out of Europe. Then we
know exactly what’s going on, who is
involved, and then we can ensure that
the right practices are used to process
exported vehicles. You might say it’s a
virtual problem. There are gaps in the
system.’

wAit And see
Salau adds: ‘Despite it being a very
unusual and hard year for most peo-
ple, 2020 was actually a very good
one for the European car recycling
industry.’ However, she cautioned law-
makers to think twice about setting
fixed targets for recycled plastic con-
tent in new automotive parts. ‘This is
only feasible if recyclers can guaran-
tee that recycled plastic can be used
as a substitute with the exact same
technical and quality properties as vir-
gin material.’
Moreover, it’s questionable whether a
steady supply of recycled content can
be guaranteed throughout the auto-
motive production cycle. If there are
any issues, however minor, it could
result in production issues that make it
impractical for manufacturers to meet
pre-determined quotas.
The review of the ELV Directive is seen
as the perfect opportunity to ensure
that overlapping regulations are
brought within the same framework.
Hatzi-Hull uses the stage several times
to invite delegates to participate in
providing expert feedback and to
voice their interests. When she joking-
ly asks whether it would be best to
leave the directive as it is, anxious
murmurs rise from the audience.
Industry stakeholders want more har-
monisation and clearer targets;
they’ve been demanding this for
years. The other side of the coin is
uncertainty, asserts Lein Tange, ceo of
PolystyreneLoop which opened an
innovative polystyrene recycling plant
in Terneuzen, the Netherlands, in
June. ‘There is a constant pressure of
new legislation. This means the big
companies are not eager to invest.
After all, what counts as a state-of-
the-art technology today may be con-
sidered not good enough a few years
from now. This results in a wait-and-
see attitude.’

snApshot: the AutomotiVe mArKet
Over 6.1 million used cars were recycled in the EU in 2019, according to the
latest Eurostat data. Figures for 2020 are likely to be very different owing to
the pandemic rocking the boat for most industries. Meanwhile, the uptake
of EVs is leading more car recyclers to expand their operations to include
batteries.
Market analysts expect the European EV reuse and recycling market, which
was worth EUR 57 million in 2020, to grow by almost 55% annually during
the 2020-2027 period. Meanwhile, the global automotive aftermarket saw a
flurry of activity amid the coronavirus crisis as the production of new parts
and components was temporarily stalled. The sector worldwide is anticipat-
ed to grow from EUR 368 billion to EUR 472 billion.

EuRIC is calling on lawmakers to set a binding target for post-consumer thermoplastics.

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