Battery Recycling Market Top Companies & Manufacturers Companies

Section 1 — Battery Recycling Market Companies Overview

Why Battery Recycling Market Is Expanding?

The global battery recycling market is expanding rapidly due to rising electric vehicle (EV) adoption, increasing use of lithium-ion batteries in consumer electronics, stricter environmental regulations, and growing demand for recovered critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. Market Research Future estimates the market at USD 26.93 billion in 2024, projected to grow from USD 29.39 billion in 2025 to USD 70.49 billion by 2035, registering a CAGR of 9.14%. Lead-acid battery recycling remains the largest segment, supported by mature infrastructure and recovery rates exceeding 95%, while lithium-ion battery recycling is the fastest-growing segment, driven by the rapid increase in end-of-life EV batteries.

Automotive batteries account for the largest share of recyclable feedstock as the first generation of mass-market EVs reaches retirement. Hydrometallurgy is the leading recycling process because of its high recovery efficiency and lower environmental impact, whereas pyrometallurgy is gaining traction for processing mixed battery chemistries. Recovered battery metals continue to improve the economic viability of recycling.

Regionally, United States-led North America dominates the market with around a 45% share, supported by strong regulations and domestic battery initiatives. European Union is the second-largest market due to strict battery recycling mandates, while Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region, led by China and South Korea through expanding EV adoption and recycling investments.

Why These Companies Are Leading the Market?

Market Research Future identifies four key factors driving leadership in the battery recycling market. First, integrated closed-loop supply chains enable companies such as Redwood Materials, Umicore, and SungEel HiTech to produce battery-grade materials, capturing greater value than black-mass-only recyclers. Second, advanced recycling technologies developed by Aqua Metals, Duesenfeld, and American Battery Technology Company improve recovery efficiency, purity, and environmental performance. Third, strategic partnerships with automakers and battery manufacturers secure high-value feedstock, strengthening long-term competitiveness. Finally, compliance with evolving regulations and government-backed critical mineral programs provides access to incentives and stable demand. Through 2035, market leaders will be those capable of producing battery-grade recycled materials at commercial scale while remaining cost-competitive with primary mining and benefiting from increasing recycled-content mandates.

Section 2 — Top Companies in the Global Battery Recycling Market — MRFR Rankings (2026)

MRFR has identified and profiled the following leading battery recycling companies globally, evaluated on technology capability, processing capacity, revenue performance, geographic presence, OEM partnerships, and regulatory positioning. Note that this market includes several companies in early-commercial or restructuring stages, reflecting the capital-intensive, technology-development nature of the emerging lithium-ion battery recycling sector.

*Rankings based on MRFR analysis. Revenue figures sourced from official company filings and investor relations disclosures. Several companies are pre-revenue or early-stage commercial; revenue estimates reflect available disclosures as of April 2026.

Section 3 — Detailed Company Profiles

1. Umicore N.V./S.A. | Euronext Brussels: UMI | Brussels, Belgium

Umicore is a multinational materials technology and recycling group active in Battery Materials Solutions, Recycling (precious metals refining), and Catalysis. The battery recycling business is organized into two business units: Battery Recycling Solutions, which operates a pilot plant in Belgium to develop next-generation lithium-ion battery recycling processes, and Battery Materials Solutions, which produces cathode active materials and refines battery materials, thus creating a continuum between recycling and the production of new battery material. Umicore’s VAL’EAS™ battery recycling process, developed at its Hoboken smelter in Belgium – one of the largest precious metals refining complexes in the world – recovers cobalt, nickel, copper and other valuable metals from discharged lithium-ion batteries at industrial scale. It is also a major operator of electronic scrap recycling, which feeds into its battery material production activities, through its Recycling Business Group (precious metals refining).

2. Redwood Materials Inc. | Private | Carson City, Nevada, USA

Redwood Materials is the foremost U.S. lithium-ion battery recycling and materials firm, formed in 2017 by JB Straubel (Tesla co-founder) with the goal of creating a closed-loop, domestic battery supply chain for the electric vehicle and energy storage industries. The Nevada plant processes 20 GWh of lithium-ion batteries annually, or about 44,000 tonnes of material, and recovers lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper that are refined into battery-grade cathode active materials and anode copper foil that are then sold back to battery manufacturers. Redwood's closed-loop approach generates revenue from recycling service fees paid by battery manufacturers and consumer electronics businesses, along with the sale of refined battery materials to customers including Panasonic, Ford and Volkswagen.

3. SungEel HiTech Co., Ltd. | KOSDAQ: 256640 | Gunsan, South Korea

SungEel HiTech, founded in 2000, is South Korea's leading lithium-ion battery recycler and one of the most technically advanced hydrometallurgical battery recycling companies globally. Its recycling process covers lithium-ion batteries from EVs, portable electronics, and manufacturing scrap, recovering high-purity nickel sulfate, cobalt sulfate, lithium carbonate, and manganese sulfate through a 100% circulatory system that generates no wastewater and achieves material recovery rates exceeding 95%. The company's process reduces carbon emissions by 40–67% compared to virgin mining-based cathode material production, positioning it favorably within ESG-driven automotive supply chain requirements. SungEel's annual production capacity serves approximately 400,000 EVs' worth of battery materials globally.

4. American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) | Nasdaq: ABAT | Reno, Nevada, USA

American Battery Technology Company is an integrated key battery minerals company commercializing first-of-kind technology for primary battery mineral manufacturing (lithium mining from sedimentary deposits in Nevada) and secondary mineral recovery, via lithium-ion battery recycling. Its battery recycling business in Reno, Nevada, uses a hydrometallurgical technique to recover lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese from end-of-life EV batteries and manufacturing debris, with a focus on producing crucial minerals domestically rather than relying on imported supplies. ABTC sits at the confluence of EV battery supply chain onshoring policy and technical innovation, with active backing from the U.S. Department of Energy for its essential mineral manufacturing commercialization program.

5. Battery Resources / Ascend Elements | Private (Chapter 11) | Westborough, Massachusetts, USA

Battery Resources, operating as Ascend Elements, was a venture-backed lithium-ion battery recycler that developed the Hydro-to-Cathode™ direct recycling process — a technology that can produce upcycled cathode active materials directly from black mass without the intermediate step of full material dissolution and reprecipitation, potentially reducing processing energy and cost versus conventional hydrometallurgy. The company’s flagship facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, was intended as a large-scale commercial cathode material production factory that uses recycled battery inputs, and a second facility is planned for the United Kingdom. Ascend has raised more than USD 1 billion in cumulative investment from investors including Hitachi, Fidelity and the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

6. Duesenfeld GmbH | Private | Wendeburg (near Braunschweig), Germany

Duesenfeld is a German battery recycling technology specialist that has developed a patented mechanical-hydrometallurgical recycling process that sets itself apart from pyrometallurgical competitors because it can operate at room temperature without the energy-intensive smelting step, which allows the company to recover the battery electrolyte, a component that is typically destroyed in pyrometallurgical processes, as well as cathode materials, anode graphite, copper and aluminium. The process produces 40–72% reductions in CO2 compared to traditional battery recycling methods and eliminates dangerous gas emissions associated with traditional shredding-in-air approaches. It is especially well suited for regulatory environments that impose strict emissions standards on battery recycling facilities.

7. Recupyl SAS (Veolia Battery Solutions) | Veolia SA | Grenoble, France

Recupyl is a French battery recycling technology and services firm created in 1992 and bought by Veolia – one of the world’s largest environmental services companies – in 2012, and is now part of the Veolia battery recycling portfolio. Recupyl has developed one of the world’s first commercial recycling processes for lithium-ion batteries using an aqueous, low-temperature hydrometallurgical process that can handle a broad range of chemistries including lithium-ion, nickel-metal hydride, nickel-cadmium, alkaline and primary lithium batteries. This multi-chemistry capability differentiates it from recyclers focused on EV batteries that target homogeneous lithium-ion feedstocks. Its technology allows recovery rates of over 95% for cobalt, nickel and lithium, while the aqueous chemistry method reduces emissions of harmful gases and allows operation within normal industrial building permits.

8. Aqua Metals Inc. | Nasdaq: AQMS | Reno, Nevada, USA

Aqua Metals is a leader in environmentally friendly battery metal recycling in the United States, utilizing its patented AquaRefining™ technology, an electrochemical process that employs electricity and water to recover valuable metals from used lithium-ion batteries by electroplating, as opposed to the polluting high-temperature smelting or hazardous chemical solvent extraction techniques used by traditional recyclers. The process is operated in a closed loop, resulting in virtually zero greenhouse gas emissions or toxic off-gases, reduces landfill waste by approximately 95% compared to conventional battery recycling, and produces high-purity lithium carbonate, nickel carbonate, and mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) that meet the battery-grade specifications required by cathode active material producers. Its Li AquaRefining™ platform is modular and scalable from 10,000 to 60,000 tonnes per year in a single facility.

9. Glencore Battery Recycling (formerly Li-Cycle) | Glencore Plc | Baar, Switzerland

Glencore Battery Recycling (GBR) is the battery recycling business of Glencore Plc — one of the world's largest commodity trading and mining companies — formed through the August 8, 2025 acquisition of Li-Cycle Holdings Corp.'s assets following Li-Cycle's May 2025 bankruptcy filing in Canada and the United States. GBR operates five spoke facilities across North America (Arizona, Alabama, New York) and Europe (Magdeburg, Germany — one of Europe's largest battery recycling plants), with a combined processing capacity of approximately 61,000 metric tonnes of battery material annually. GBR also holds the rights to the Rochester Hub project in New York — designed with 35,000 tonnes per year black mass processing capacity producing battery-grade lithium carbonate, nickel sulfate, and cobalt sulfate — alongside Li-Cycle's complete intellectual property portfolio including the Spoke & Hub Technologies™ patent family.

Section 4 — M&A Activity Tracker

The battery recycling sector experienced intense and consequential M&A activity in 2022–2026, including high-profile bankruptcies, distressed acquisitions, major venture financing rounds, and strategic joint ventures reflecting the capital-intensive and technically challenging nature of scaling commercial lithium-ion battery recycling operations.

Key Trend: MRFR's analysis identifies two defining M&A dynamics reshaping the battery recycling competitive landscape through 2026: (1) distressed consolidation — with Li-Cycle's acquisition by Glencore and Ascend Elements' Chapter 11 filing reflecting the industry's structural challenge of large upfront capital requirements, delayed EV end-of-life volume ramp, and low lithium prices — and (2) strategic integration of recycling into broader EV and energy transition supply chains, exemplified by Redwood's BESS division, Google's investment in Redwood, and Glencore's battery recycling integration alongside its primary mining business.

Section 5 — R&D Investment & Innovation Signals

Battery recycling companies invested heavily in 2025–2026 in process innovation targeting lower-emission recycling, higher material purity, direct cathode recycling, LFP battery chemistry compatibility, and AI-driven process optimization — reflecting the intensifying commercial and regulatory pressure to prove economic viability of lithium-ion battery recycling at scale.

• Umicore continued to invest in technology optimisation at its Battery Recycling Solutions pilot plant in Belgium, where it is working on next-gen lithium-ion battery recycling process development, while tight cost management continued, with the company noting the major EV end-of-life battery volume wave is projected to arrive in the mid-2030s, allowing time for technology maturation before mass commercial scale-up, per Umicore’s February 2026 full-year results.
• Redwood Materials launched its Redwood Energy second-life BESS division in June 2025, deploying EV battery packs with remaining usable capacity into stationary energy storage applications for AI data centers and renewable energy developers — demonstrating a novel approach to battery circularity that extracts additional value from battery assets before they require material-level recycling.
• SungEel HiTech introduced a new lithium recovery process achieving efficiency exceeding 92% in 2025, and opened its Indiana, USA hydrometallurgical facility with capacity to serve 100,000 EVs annually — the company's first large-scale North American post-processing plant capable of producing battery-grade lithium carbonate and nickel/cobalt sulfate for U.S. battery manufacturers.
• American Battery Technology Company achieved a 120% increase in battery recycling throughput in Q3 FY2025, implemented 24/7 multi-shift operations at its Reno facility, and announced an R&D investment in July 2025 aimed at improving battery recycling technologies — reflecting ABTC's stated ambition to demonstrate the commercial viability of its combined primary mineral extraction and secondary battery recycling platform.
• Aqua Metals achieved battery-grade lithium carbonate with fluorine below 30 ppm from its AquaRefining™ process — meeting stringent cathode active material producer specifications — and demonstrated pilot-scale LFP battery recycling in 2025, showing that its electrochemical process can extract battery-grade lithium from lithium iron phosphate chemistries that are becoming dominant in EV and stationary storage applications.