Recycling Plants and Projects for Critical Minerals
Facts checked against sources on . How we check facts.
Recycling is the largest group on the EU's strategic project lists: 29 of the 93 EU projects are recycling projects, 10 selected in March 2025 and 19 in October 2026, and 8 of them name lithium. The Commission says the 106 projects together could fully meet the 2030 recycling benchmarks for lithium, cobalt and rare earths, which require recycling capacity equal to 25% of annual consumption. Operating capacity is smaller and less stable: Redwood Materials says it receives over 20 GWh of batteries a year in Nevada, while the Li-Cycle plants Glencore bought in 2025 have 61,000 tonnes of capacity of which only the German site was running.
29
recycling projects on the EU strategic lists: 10 in March 2025 and 19 in October 2026
25%
of annual strategic raw material consumption should be met by EU recycling capacity by 2030; the projects could fully meet this for lithium, cobalt and rare earths
20 GWh
of batteries a year received for recycling at Redwood Materials' Nevada campus, according to the company
Source: Redwood Materials
8,500 t
installed recycling capacity of the former Northvolt Revolt Ett site that Lyten agreed to acquire in March 2026
Which recycling projects has the EU designated?
The table lists all 29 recycling projects, grouped by the first material named. 8 name lithium, and the others recover copper, platinum group metals, aluminium, rare earths, gallium or tungsten.
| Project | Country | Promoter | Materials | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back to Battery black mass refining | Netherlands | Back to Battery B.V. | Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Manganese, Graphite | EU, October 2026 |
| Battery recycling capacity, Racari | Romania | ECO LIFE STYLE S.R.L. | Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Manganese, Graphite | EU, October 2026 |
| EU BEST STRAT | Germany | cylib Production I GmbH | Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Manganese, Graphite, Copper, Aluminium | EU, October 2026 |
| Hydrometallurgy | France | Orano Batteries | Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Manganese, Graphite | EU, March 2025 |
| NorthCYCLE | Sweden | Northvolt Revolt AB | Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Manganese, Graphite | EU, March 2025 |
| POLVOLT | Poland | Elemental Battery Metals SP. z.o.o. | Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Manganese, Copper, PGMs | EU, March 2025 |
| Portovesme CRM Hub | Italy | Portovesme s.r.l. | Lithium, Manganese | EU, March 2025 |
| Project Fortum Hydromet | Finland | Fortum Battery Recycling Oy | Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Graphite, Copper | EU, March 2025 |
| BREES (Best Rare Earth Element Separation) | France | Rhodia Operations | Rare earths | EU, October 2026 |
| HyProMag GmbH | Germany | HyProMag GmbH | Rare earths | EU, October 2026 |
| LIFE22-ENV- IT-INSPIREE | Italy | Itelyum Regeneration SpA | Rare earths | EU, March 2025 |
| MagFactory | France | MagREEsource | Rare earths | EU, March 2025 |
| 3ECYCLE | Netherlands | Mitsubishi Materials Europe B.V | Copper | EU, October 2026 |
| 9PV-up | Italy | 9-Tech | Copper, Aluminium, Silicon | EU, October 2026 |
| CUPIDON | Belgium | Comet Traitements | Copper | EU, October 2026 |
| ETEOCLES | Greece | ElvalHalcor Hellenic Copper and Aluminium industry S.A. | Copper | EU, October 2026 |
| Myne Circular Metals Harderwijk | Netherlands | Myne Circular Metals B.V | Copper, Aluminium | EU, October 2026 |
| Second TBRC Lünen | Germany | Aurubis AG | Copper | EU, October 2026 |
| Urban mining (TDM Electronics) | Poland | TDM Electronics Inc. | Copper, PGMs, Aluminium, Germanium | EU, October 2026 |
| Alpha Project | Italy | Solvay Chimica Italia Spa | PGMs | EU, March 2025 |
| Refinis | Lithuania | Refinis recycling plant (UAB Refinis) | PGMs | EU, October 2026 |
| CRM4Defence | Italy, Poland, United Kingdom and France | Leonardo S.p.A. | Aluminium, Magnesium, Titanium | EU, October 2026 |
| New Aluminium Recycling Hub in Greece | Greece | Aluminium Rolling Division of ELVALHALCOR (Hellenic Copper and Aluminium Industry S.A) | Aluminium | EU, October 2026 |
| GaRefine | Slovakia | CMK s.r.o. | Gallium | EU, October 2026 |
| CirCular | Spain | Atlantic Copper SLU | Nickel, Copper, PGMs | EU, March 2025 |
| Integrated Recycling Smelter | Poland | KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. | Nickel, Copper | EU, October 2026 |
| RECOVER-IT | Italy | Circular Materials s.r.l. | Nickel, Copper, PGMs | EU, March 2025 |
| REW-ITA green HUB (tungsten recovery) | Italy | OMCD TEK HUB S.p.A. | Cobalt, Copper, Tungsten | EU, October 2026 |
| Urban Mining Factory - Printed Circuit Boards | Netherlands | CRITICAL. (owner of Circular Industries) | Nickel, Copper, Aluminium | EU, October 2026 |
Source: annexes to Commission Decision C(2025) 1904 and C(2026) 8051, tallied by this site. The Commission describes every project as ongoing. NorthCYCLE's promoter, Northvolt Revolt AB, is part of the former Northvolt group: in March 2026 Lyten agreed to acquire the Revolt Ett recycling facility in Skellefteå, with closing expected in the second quarter of 2026 (Lyten); this site did not find a closing announcement. Five integrated projects on the 2026 list also combine processing with recycling.
Which recycling plants operate or have changed hands?
| Operator | What is recorded | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Redwood Materials, Nevada and South Carolina | Says its Sparks campus receives over 20 GWh of batteries a year and that it produced 60,000 tonnes of critical minerals there in 2025; the first phase of its South Carolina recycling operation added more than 20,000 tonnes of annual processing capacity. | Redwood, Redwood 2025 review (company statements) |
| Glencore (former Li-Cycle assets) | Completed on 8 August 2025 for a bid of about $40 million: three US facilities, one in Canada and one in Germany with combined capacity of 61,000 tonnes a year, of which only the German site was running. The Rochester hub never began operations. | Waste Dive |
| Revolt Ett, Skellefteå (former Northvolt) | Installed capacity of 8,500 tonnes a year for lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese; Lyten signed a binding agreement to acquire it on 13 March 2026 and said it was identifying partners to restart operations. | Lyten |
| Rare earth magnet recyclers, Indiana and Texas | In 2025 the Department of War provided an $80 million loan to a recycler in Marion, Indiana and awarded $5.1 million to a recycler in Houston to recover rare earths including terbium and dysprosium. | USGS |
Capacity and output figures are company statements or press reports of them, and are not audited. See the battery recycling page for the EU rules these plants must meet.
Why do designated projects and operating plants differ?
Designation is a forecast of intent and operating capacity is a record of what exists. The Commission names a lack of buyers as the main risk for its 2026 projects, and the Li-Cycle and Northvolt cases show how recyclers can fail before reaching scale. The economics are on the recycling economics page, and the rules that create demand for recycled metal are on the battery recycling page.
Frequently asked questions
How many EU strategic projects are recycling projects?
The EU lists name 29 recycling projects: 10 selected on 25 March 2025 and 19 on 9 October 2026. Five of the eight integrated projects on the 2026 list also combine processing and recycling.
What is the EU's recycling benchmark for 2030?
The Critical Raw Materials Act sets a benchmark that EU recycling capacity meets 25% of annual consumption of strategic raw materials by 2030. The Commission said in October 2026 that its strategic projects could fully meet the recycling benchmarks for lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements.
How much battery recycling capacity is operating?
Reliable totals are not published. Redwood Materials says it receives over 20 GWh of batteries a year at its Nevada campus, and the Li-Cycle plants Glencore bought have 61,000 tonnes of capacity, of which only the German site was running when the deal closed in August 2025.
What happened to Li-Cycle?
Li-Cycle went through bankruptcy proceedings, and Glencore completed the purchase of its assets on 8 August 2025 for a bid of about $40 million. Its Rochester hub in New York never began operations after construction was paused in October 2023 because of rising costs.
Sources
Read on October 13, 2026. Figures on this page come from these documents; where a number is an estimate, the source says so.
- Commission Decision C(2025) 1904, annex (25 March 2025)
- Commission Decision C(2026) 8051, annex (9 October 2026)
- European Commission press release IP/26/2113 (9 October 2026)
- Waste Dive: Glencore completes takeover of Li-Cycle assets (8 August 2025)
- Redwood Materials: Tahoe campus and 2025 review. Company statements
- Lyten: agreement to acquire the Northvolt Revolt recycling plant (13 March 2026). Company press release
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: heavy rare earths
