China's power battery recycling industry has entered a phase of comprehensive improvement, Huanqiu reported analysts as saying.

Rising volume is the background. Batteries in electric vehicles sold around 2020 are entering their replacement cycle, and the industry consistently reports that the volume awaiting collection is climbing quickly.

Recycling divides broadly into two paths: reusing cells with residual capacity in applications such as energy storage, and recovering lithium, nickel and cobalt as raw material. The latter reduces dependence on imported minerals.

Transparency in collection is the crux. Where informal collection bypasses licensed processors, the risk of accidents and contamination rises, which is why traceability systems and processor licensing are cited as targets for reform.

Korea and Taiwan face the same problem with a lag. Regions further along in electric-vehicle adoption find waste battery infrastructure emerging as a priority first, a pattern common to all of them.

Prices for recycled material track international mineral markets. When lithium prices are low, the economics of material recovery weaken; when they are high, competition for collection has repeatedly overheated.