When we talk about battery recycling, sustainability tends to come up quickly. Recycling is better than landfill. Recovering critical raw materials reduces mining. Keeping materials in circulation is good for the planet. All of this is true.
But how do we actually measure it? How do we know whether one recycling process is more sustainable than another? And how do we account for sustainability dimensions that go beyond carbon emissions — including social impacts, economic viability, and supply chain risks?
These are harder questions. And they are exactly what a growing community of European researchers and projects is working to answer.
On 9 July 2026, CIRCUBATT will join five other Horizon Europe battery projects for a free webinar that tackles these questions head on. Before that, this article explains the key concepts — so you arrive informed and ready to engage.
What does sustainability assessment actually mean?
Sustainability assessment is a structured method for evaluating the environmental, social, and economic impacts of a product, process, or system across its full lifecycle. It goes beyond asking “is this better or worse for the environment?” It asks: better or worse by how much, across which dimensions, compared to what, and for whom?
In the context of battery recycling, a sustainability assessment might evaluate:
- How much energy a recycling process consumes compared to producing virgin materials
- How much CO2 is emitted per kilogram of recovered lithium, cobalt, or nickel
- What chemical waste is generated and how it is managed
- What social impacts the recycling process creates — for workers, local communities, and supply chain actors
- Whether the process is economically viable at industrial scale in Europe
No single metric captures all of this. That is why sustainability assessment frameworks bring together multiple methodologies — life cycle assessment (LCA), social life cycle assessment (s-LCA), techno-economic analysis, and others — to build a complete picture.
Why battery recycling sustainability is harder to measure than it sounds
Battery recycling involves complex, multi-step processes — from collection and dismantling through pre-treatment, black mass processing, and material recovery. Each step has its own environmental footprint, cost structure, and social implications.
As we explored in a previous article, the economics of recycling are challenging. High processing costs, low market prices for recovered materials, and limited economies of scale make many recycling business models financially marginal in Europe today.
But economic viability is only part of the picture. A recycling process that is profitable but highly energy-intensive, or that relies on hazardous chemicals with significant waste streams, may not be genuinely sustainable in a broader sense. Conversely, a process that is greener but economically unviable will not scale — which means it will not actually contribute to a circular battery value chain in practice.
Measuring sustainability in battery recycling therefore requires holding multiple dimensions in balance simultaneously. That is what makes it technically demanding — and strategically important.
What is social lifecycle assessment — and why does it matter?
Environmental lifecycle assessment — LCA — is relatively well established in the battery sector. Social lifecycle assessment — s-LCA — is less familiar but increasingly important.
S-LCA evaluates the social impacts of a product or process across its supply chain. In the context of end-of-life EV batteries and second-life and recycling business models, this means asking questions like:
- What are the working conditions for people involved in battery collection, dismantling, and processing?
- How does the shift to new battery business models — such as Battery-as-a-Service — affect jobs and livelihoods across the European value chain?
- Who bears the risks and who captures the benefits of battery circularity?
- What are the social implications of Europe reducing its dependence on imported critical raw materials through recycling?
These questions matter for policymakers designing regulation, for businesses building circular business models, and for communities living near recycling facilities. They also matter for the long-term legitimacy and social acceptance of battery recycling as a strategic European industry.
Why validating sustainability approaches matters
Measuring sustainability is one challenge. Validating those measurements is another.
A sustainability framework is only as credible as the methodology behind it — and that methodology needs to be tested against real-world data, peer-reviewed against scientific standards, and validated by independent experts. Without validation, sustainability claims risk becoming marketing language rather than rigorous science.
This is particularly important in the EU regulatory context. The EU Batteries Regulation is introducing requirements for battery carbon footprints, recycled content declarations, and battery passports. These requirements will need to be backed by credible, validated sustainability data. Companies and projects that invest in rigorous sustainability assessment now will be better positioned to meet these requirements as they come into force.
Validation also matters for cross-project learning. When multiple European projects working on battery recycling use different assessment methodologies, it is difficult to compare results or draw sector-wide conclusions. Shared validation frameworks make it possible to aggregate findings, identify best practices, and build a common evidence base for European battery recycling policy.
What European projects are doing about it
Several Horizon Europe projects are currently developing and testing sustainability assessment approaches for battery recycling. The Batt-Bridge initiative brings six of them together — RENOVATE, CIRCUBATT, REVITALISE, ReUSE, STREAMS, and HighMag — to compare approaches, share findings, and build towards a more coherent European framework.
Each project brings a different angle. CIRCUBATT contributes expertise in circular battery value chain innovation — covering the full lifecycle from sustainable battery design through AI-driven lifecycle management, second-life applications, and advanced recycling. CIRCUBATT researchers James Duong from the University of Greenwich and Dr. Michael Hess from Battronics will present at the webinar, bringing perspectives on both the business model and technology dimensions of battery recycling sustainability.
The other participating projects cover complementary ground — from innovative recycling chemistries and processes to magnesium-based battery technologies and sustainable raw material sourcing — making the webinar a genuinely cross-cutting conversation rather than a single-project showcase.
What good looks like: a circular battery recycling process
Putting all of this together, what does a genuinely sustainable battery recycling process look like in practice?
It recovers the maximum possible share of valuable materials — lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and others — with the minimum possible energy and chemical inputs. As we explored in a recent article on LFP battery recycling, innovations like Deep Eutectic Solvents offer promising routes toward lower-toxicity, more selective recycling processes.
It is economically viable — generating enough value from recovered materials to sustain a real business in Europe, without depending indefinitely on public subsidy. It creates fair working conditions and positive social outcomes across the supply chain. And it fits within a broader circular system — one where batteries are designed for recyclability from the start, managed intelligently throughout their first life, routed to second life where appropriate, and recycled efficiently at true end of life.
No single project or technology gets all of this right on its own. That is why cross-project collaboration and shared sustainability assessment frameworks matter so much.
Join the conversation on 9 July
On 9 July 2026, the Batt-Bridge webinar brings together researchers and practitioners from six European battery projects to discuss exactly these questions. The session runs from 10:30 to 12:00 CET and is free to attend.
The agenda covers two sessions:
🔵 Session 1: Sustainability assessment approaches for innovative battery recycling — presentations and discussion from all six projects
🟠 Session 2: Validating sustainability approaches — cross-project discussion on how to ensure assessment frameworks are rigorous, comparable, and practically relevant
Whether you work in battery research, recycling technology, circular economy policy, or sustainable business models, this is a conversation worth joining.
Register for free here — 9 July 2026, 10:30 CET
About CIRCUBATT
CIRCUBATT is a Horizon Europe project (grant no. 101192383) developing integrated solutions for circular battery value chain innovation. The project covers the full battery lifecycle — from sustainable battery design and AI-enhanced lifecycle management to second-life applications and advanced recycling — with the goal of reducing Europe’s reliance on critical raw materials and advancing its circular economy transition.