Scotland’s first fully functioning battery recycling plant, which can handle up to 12,000 tonnes of battery waste every year, is being extended to prepare for the disassembly of an increasing number of electric-vehicle (EV) batteries, as the uptake of electric vehicles increases around the UK.

Belmont Trading UK’s (www.belmont-trading.com) Kilwinning plant recycles all types of domestic and industrial batteries, and it handles a large percentage of the UK’s battery recycling, with the remainder destined for refineries in Europe and the USA.

Belmont has recently revamped its 25,000ft² recycling facility, spending £300,000 on plant and equipment — in conjunction with Urecycle Oy Oulu (Finland) and Karlskoga (Sweden) — to sort and shred thousands of batteries every day.

The new dismantling lines are designed to cope with the disassembly of lithium Li-Ion EV batteries, which are now widely used in electric cars, fork-lift trucks and golf trolleys.

Belmont’s managing director, Jeff Borrman, said: “The rising number of electric vehicles brings an increasing demand for Li-Ion batteries, and we are starting to work with the automotive and telecoms sectors on their recycling strategies for these batteries.

“Elements within EV batteries — such as cobalt and nickel — are valuable, so it is economically viable to recycle them, but this can be quite a time-consuming and costly process, so it has to be planned properly.

“The key at all times is to extract maximum value with minimum environmental impact by recycling in the UK.”