The development of ever more sophisticated recycling processes for batteries from electric cars is currently occupying companies around the globe. If secondary use is no longer possible, spent batteries are increasingly being used as a secondary source for critical battery materials. The business is developing rapidly: As recently as March, Canada's recycling company Li-Cycle announced that it had made its first commercial delivery of recycled battery materials. Shortly before, Fortum, BASF and Nornickel had announced a joint initiative to recover valuable metals from lithium-ion batteries. Eramet, BASF and SUEZ as well as Audi and Umicore are pursuing similar projects. These are just a few of the projects initiated in the last six months, while several others have started in parallel or have been running for some time.