Recycling is essential to a sustainable future, but it cannot meet near-term demand. Metals used in electric vehicles and energy systems can take decades to return to the supply chain, meaning most recycled material won’t be available until the 2050s or later.
The International Energy Agency estimates that recycling will supply only a small fraction of total demand by 2030 and 2040. The majority of required materials must still come from new sources.
New battery chemistries are also evolving, but they do not eliminate the need for key metals like nickel and cobalt, and typically take decades to scale from research to production. For the next several decades, the world will depend on responsibly sourced primary supply.
