Cobalt

Cobalt recycling feedstocks

Cobalt can be recycled as either pre- or post-consumer feedstock.  In 2023, recycled cobalt made up about 5.2% of the global supply, with most coming from pre-consumer manufacturing scrap. As more electric vehicles reach end-of-life, post-consumer recycling is expected to grow significantly.

Pre-consumer cobalt scrap such electrode manufacturing, cell assembly, and final testing. For example, in electrode manufacturing for lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) batteries, cobalt-containing slurry is coated onto metal foils, often resulting in leftover material. During cell finishing and quality testing, any cells that fail to meet performance standards can also be recovered as scrap. However, this process is relatively complex, and special facilities are required to recover cobalt from pre-consumer scrap contained in cathode materials under the current design of NMC batteries.

While pre-consumer scrap is collected within the manufacturing cycle, post-consumer cobalt scrap comes from products at the end of their life. The most significant source is used electric vehicle (EV) batteries, which use cobalt-rich cathodes. As the first generation of EVs reaches end-of-life, this stream is expected to grow significantly.

Additional sources of post-consumer cobalt scrap include e-waste in the form of consumer electronics like smartphones, laptops, and power tools. However, recovering cobalt from these devices is often limited by low collection rates and the difficulty of dismantling compact, embedded batteries. Other post-consumer scrap sources include stationary energy storage systems and industrial applications such as turbines, aerospace components, and high-performance tooling alloys.

The total volume of recyclable material in 2022 was approximately 48 GWh – by 2040, this is forecast to reach over 2,948 GWh. In the short-term, pre-consumer scrap will continue to account for the majority of the recycling feedstock.

EV batteries, which represent a substantial portion of cobalt usage, typically have a lifespan of eight to 15 years. This extended product life means that the volume of end-of-life batteries available for recycling is currently limited but is expected to increase notably as early EV models reach the end of their service life.

According 2024 research, this dynamic is anticipated to shift as more batteries complete their operational lifespan, thereby enhancing the availability of post-consumer scrap for recycling. However, supply chain uncertainty and persistent concerns over human rights abuses at upstream cobalt extraction sites concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have pushed EV manufacturers to innovate newer models with less cobalt volume. In the long term, this may impact the overall availability of post-consumer scrap or deter investment in recycling, particularly as governments invest in research on building cobalt-free EV batteries.

While EV batteries contain the highest volume of cobalt, post-consumer cobalt scrap is also present in trace amounts in a wide variety of consumer electronics. Examples of such e-waste include smartphones, laptops, tablets, and cordless power tools, where cobalt enhances the energy density of smaller lithium-ion batteries. 2022 estimates show that of the approximately 4 billion kg of e-waste available worldwide, cobalt constituted about 34,000 tonnes.  Miniaturization, diversity of product designs, and inefficiencies around collecting and segregating e-waste that contains cobalt means that – other than EV batteries – recycling is not highly economically feasible currently.

In 2022, recycled cobalt accounted for approximately 5% of the global cobalt supply (178 kt). In 2023, recycled cobalt accounted for an estimated 5.2% of the total global cobalt supply. Looking ahead, with the total volume of cobalt-containing scrap projected to increase 16 times by 2040, secondary production could account for as much as 41% of the global cobalt supply.

In 2022, end-of-life cobalt scrap accounted for about 26% of the total supply of cobalt scrap. In 2023, end-of-life cobalt scrap accounted for only 15% of the total supply of cobalt, suggesting uncertainty in the recycled cobalt market.