All things must pass – and lithium-ion batteries are no exception. But as demand for these batteries grows, so does battery waste, posing a challenge that must be addressed as we move towards a renewable future.

Lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries are a relatively new technology, but they’ve quickly become indispensable. First commercialised in the 1990s, they soon became commonplace through their use in smart phones, tablets, laptops and household appliances.

In 2008, they found their way into electric cars with the production of the first Tesla Roadster, and have become the battery of choice for electric vehicles (EVs) because of their superior energy-to-weight performance.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), EVs already account for more than one of every five cars sold. By 2035, the IEA expects every other car sold globally to be electric, based on today’s energy, climate and industrial policy settings.

The rise of li-ion batteries in the transport sector is being paralleled in the energy sector. Because the output of renewable generators like solar panels and wind turbines is variable – i.e. it changes depending on the weather and the time of day – they need to be ‘firmed’ with energy storage systems, such as batteries, that can supply power to the grid when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

As the world’s largest producer of lithium, this is good news for Australia – but it also means the li-ion battery waste stream is set to soar, potentially exceeding 100,000 tonnes by 2036.

What's the end-of-life plan for lithium-ion batteries?

Every time you recharge a battery, the electrodes that give it life degrade a little further, until eventually, it stops working. Li-ion batteries generally have a life span of five to 10 years, though CSIRO notes that current development trends could stretch this out to 15 years.

The usefulness of a li-ion battery can also be extended through second-life applications. For instance, an EV battery will retain roughly 70 to 80 per cent of its capacity, even after years on the road – so when it can no longer power a vehicle, it can still be used for a less demanding application like renewable energy storage.

Eventually, that battery will still come to the end of the road. Even then, according to CSIRO, 95 per cent of its materials are recyclable, and can be turned into new batteries or used in other high value industries. These materials include critical minerals such as lithium, aluminium, cobalt and nickel.

But shredding, burning or melting down li-ion batteries for their raw materials is a costly process, and with no established recycling scheme in place, very little of Australia’s li-ion battery waste is currently being recycled.

The Australian Council of Recycling notes there is no comprehensive network of e-waste collection points in the community, and with no readily available avenues to safely and legally dispose of end-of-life batteries, improper storage and disposal becomes dangerously common.

A Battery Stewardship Council report based on information provided by Australian battery collection points and recyclers found that of the 8,250 li-ion batteries that reached the end of their life in 2021, only three per cent were collected, compared to 96 per cent of lead acid batteries.

CSIRO claims 10 per cent of Australia’s li-ion battery waste is recycled, compared with 99 per cent of the nation’s lead acid battery waste, because there’s very little capacity in Australia for processing li-ion batteries. That’s leading to large volumes of batteries being stored in warehouses and scrap yards, which creates significant environmental and health risks, including serious fire risks.

This is in line with a McKinsey report which found that, internationally, most markets have no EV-battery-specific recycling requirements or delineations of responsibility between producers and consumers – and that leads to low collection rates, environmental pollution, and risks to the public.

In 2022, the ACCC authorised a product stewardship scheme run by the Battery Stewardship Council called B-Cycle. But the scheme accepts only small, loose and easily removable batteries, and doesn’t accept any mobile phone or laptop batteries, while EV batteries and battery energy storage systems fall well outside its scope.

Waking the dead batteries

In 2024, the Queensland Government released its Queensland Battery Industry Strategy, which includes a $500 million investment in large-scale and community batteries.

The Strategy acknowledges the importance of responsible battery stewardship – including battery reuse, repurposing and recycling – but notes that coordination is required across all parts of the value chain to enable this.

The Strategy commits the state government to supporting the development of a transparent and responsible battery value chain in Queensland between 2025 and 2028. Actions to support this will include:

• Undertaking a study to investigate the forecast volume and supply chain requirements to support a circular battery value chain in Queensland.

• Progressing precinct planning for recycling of renewable energy products, including batteries.

• Consulting with industry and local government on policy mechanisms to establish battery recycling in Queensland, including consideration of national and international stewardship schemes.

Examples of projects that could be supported as part of this initiative include:

• Trials to repurpose EV batteries for stationary storage applications.

• Establishing battery processing facilities in Queensland, including trials to automate battery dismantling and processing.

• Technology trials to recover target minerals from processed battery minerals.

It should be noted, too, that while li-ion batteries tend to dominate the global grid-scale storage market, there are alternatives. Iron flow batteries, such as those developed by Energy Storage Industries - Asia Pacific (ESI), have a life of 25 years; are entirely recyclable; and are made with environmentally friendly electrolytes produced in Townsville.

These batteries will be the first technology to be tested at Stanwell’s Future Energy and Innovation Training Hub (FEITH), which is being developed at the Stanwell Power Station near Rockhampton.

Ultimately, as with solar panels and wind turbines, economies of scale should help to drive down recycling costs as more li-ion batteries reach the end of their life, and demand for materials to make new batteries grows.

There’s no doubt that li-ion batteries have a key role to play as our energy system shifts – and with the appropriate end-of-life plans in place, they can play that role sustainably.