EMR opens EV battery recycling facility in Birmingham

EMR, a recycling specialist based in Birmingham, has opened a new facility focused on electric vehicle battery recycling. The centre, located in the West Midlands, will process over 2,000 tons of EV batteries per year, aiming to assess and either repair, reuse, or recycle the batteries.

Batteries arriving at the facility will come from product recalls, warranty failures, and end-of-life electric bikes and scooters. Once evaluated, the batteries will either be reused for applications such as stationary storage systems or dismantled to recover valuable materials. These materials, including lithium and nickel, will then be reused in the production of new batteries.

Helen Waters, Head of Electric Battery Recycling at EMR, stated, “While the transition to EVs is now speeding up, it will be 10 to 15 years before they arrive at EMR facilities in anything like the same quantities that petrol-powered vehicles do today. The opening of this new facility at EMR Birmingham is further proof that EMR is solving tomorrow’s challenges today.”

The facility is part of EMR’s broader efforts to develop a circular supply chain for EV batteries, following a successful pilot in Hamburg, Germany.

The facility opened by EMR in partnership with Northvolt in Hamburg, Germany, plays a key role in the development of a circular supply chain for EV batteries. The site is designed to process up to 10,000 tonnes of battery packs per year. This facility is focused on dismantling EV batteries to recover essential materials such as copper, aluminium, and the battery modules, which are then sent to Northvolt’s recycling plants. There, they are further processed to recover critical battery materials like lithium, nickel, and cobalt. These recovered materials are used in producing new battery cells, helping reduce reliance on mining for raw materials.

Image from EMR Birmingham