Lithium Australia NL is now the sole owner of battery recycling venture Envirostream after sweeping up the final 10 per cent of the enterprise.
According to the company, its subsidiary is the country's only Environmental Protection Agency permitted and licensed recycler of mixed and lithium-ion batteries and its acquisition adds an invaluable strategic asset to its portfolio.
Lithium Australia says amidst the current battery minerals landscape plagued by supply shortages and surging prices, Envirostream is in a good position to keep spent batteries out of landfill whilst also providing a sustainable feed stock material for the production of new lithium-ion batteries.
Expansion of Envirostream’s operations into significant population centres across Australia’s east coast and then internationally, to meet rising demand is now planned.
Since the start of B-cycle, the Australian government-backed battery recycling scheme, designed by the Battery Stewardship Council and implemented earlier this year, Envirostream says it has observed an increase in the collection and processing of spent batteries.
The B-cycle initiative encourages Australians to recycle batteries at numerous drop-off locations, with subsidies available to battery collectors, sorters and recyclers that lend support and assist in the process.
Importantly, Envirostream is the only authorised company in the B-cycle scheme that operates in all three divisions of the battery recycling process.
According to the CSIRO, Australia generates roughly 3000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery waste each year. Remarkably, only 2 per cent of the waste is recycled and Australia's leading scientific authority says the figure could grow to 100,000 tonnes by 2036.
Lithium Australia's purchase of Envirostream comes hot on the heels of reports the recycler was planning to construct a second battery recycling factory in Laverton, Victoria.
The new plant, according to Envirostream, is licenced to collect spent batteries and electronic debris, as well as store, sort, shred and segregate battery material, with the goal of selling recycled battery products to a variety of national and international consumers.
Envirostream says the new plant could stretch its overall storage capacity by about 300 per cent and its sorting capacity by 100 per cent.
Given its new subsidiary claims the title of the country's only fully integrated mixed-battery recycling outfit, Lithium Australia's move to sweep up the balance of the company could prove a decisive play in an evolving landscape that could see recycling play a crucial role in the development of lithium-ion battery production.
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By Matt Birney
