Environmental Impacts and Costs of Electric Vehicle Battery Recycling

End-of-life management of electric vehicle batteries (EVBs) is crucial to sustainable development. This study utilizes the lifecycle assessment (LCA) method to examine environmental impacts and environmental-related costs of the EVB recycling process. The calculated impacts are normalized and compared with global scales to determine the suitability of the recycling process. The results reveal that EVB recycling significantly reduces human toxicity (i.e., avoiding 45,934 kg 1,4-DBeq), terrestrial acidification (i.e., avoiding 425 kg SO2eq), and metal depletion (i.e., avoiding 20,129 kg Feeq), but highly incurs CO2eq emissions from energy consumption (i.e., releasing 1689 CO2eq). Using renewable energy in electricity generation may reduce the CO2eq emissions in the EVB recycling process. The environmental-related costs of the EVB recycling process are also calculated, where avoiding impacts are converted to benefits and incurred impacts are costs. The results show the environmental-related benefits of $3388.3 per battery, proving the suitability of the recycling process for EVB’s end-of-life management. The study results suggest that EVB recycling should be encouraged and supported for concrete implementation to achieve sustainable development.