Minworth, a village in West Midlands, will become home to Veolia‘s first electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling facility.

The plant, which will initially discharge and dismantle batteries is forecast to have the capacity to process almost 20% of the UK’s end of life EV batteries by 2024.

Battery manufacturing is considered as one of the most energy and water-intensive processes requiring 2.273.543 litres of water to extract one tonne of lithium.

Gavin Graveson, Veolia Senior Executive Vice-President, Northern Europe Zone, said: “We will not reach carbon-neutrality without increasing our investment and development of new technologies and recycling opportunities.

“As the demand for EVs increases, we will need this facility and more like it in the UK – to ensure we don’t hit a resource crisis in the next decade.”

In a recent report, the International Energy Agency estimated that the world has currently enough capacity to recycle 180,000 tonnes of dead EV batteries every year.