The demand for electric vehicles (EVs) is growing worldwide to counteract the environmental impact of carbon-based combustion cars, with the lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries playing a pivotal role. Although EVs are known to lower greenhouse gas emissions during the use phase, batteries contain hazardous materials, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. Therefore, end-of-life (EoL) management requires consideration to minimize the environmental impact and avoid toxic materials ending up in landfills, posing risks to human health and ecosystems. Recycling of batteries can mitigate the impacts, ensure recovery and reuse of rare materials. This study examines EoL environmental impact of lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxides (LiNiMnCoO2) NMC for pyrometallurgical (PMP) and hydrometallurgical (HMP) processing. A variety of impact categories are measured to demonstrate implications of the two recycling methods, and the product environmental footprint (PEF) to enable proportional comparison of impacts. The study firstly demonstrates that, climate change is the topmost significant impact weighing factor, followed by a group of moderately high impact categories. Secondly, the single score PEF demonstrates PMP has noticeably higher environmental impact compared with the HMP, with fossil use, ecotoxicity, land use, climate change and water use contributing largely to the overall score for both recycling methods. Future analysis will investigate the application of the PEF to the different battery ratios for recycling assessment.