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Melbourne, Australia:
“Envirostream offers a complete recycling solution for spent lithium-ion batteries, and in so doing is helping to safeguard the Australian environment by diverting toxic materials from landfill. With recycling yields exceeding 90% by weight, our business is a major contributor to the sustainability of the battery industry.”
Adrian Griffin
Managing Director
Lithium Australia NL
The transaction was completed against the backdrop of Envirostream’s plant expansion and the ever-increasing numbers of spent lithium-ion batteries (‘LIBs’) available for collection. Lithium Australia NL has extended its equity in Envirostream Australia Pty Ltd, the nation’s first mixed-battery recycler, to 90%. Envirostream is the only company in Australia with the integrated capacity to collect, sort, shred and separate all components of spent LIBs
Envirostream’s Melbourne-based facility – now with a feed capacity of 3000 tonnes per annum – produces a range of products from spent LIBs, among them copper, aluminium, steel and plastic. The high-value active components of the spent LIBs are recovered as a powder containing the lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese that was in them. At present, this high-value product is being shipped to SungEel Hitech Co. Ltd in South Korea, for refining and re-introduction into the battery manufacturing process.
Meanwhile, plastic recycled from the spent batteries is being used to produce road surfacing materials, thereby displacing some of the requirement for new hydrocarbons in that application while diverting the plastic from landfill.
Envirostream’s comprehensive recycling process recovers more than 90% of spent battery mass. This figure compares favourably with those of other battery recyclers, which generally recover only 60-65%. Its Environstream’s innovative recovery techniques and niche product applications that set it apart from its competitors.
Envirostream has established a sophisticated collection network in Victoria and plans to expand this into New South Wales and Queensland in the near future. Offshore opportunities are also being assessed.