Beatrice Browning

In April 2026, Ascend Elements filed for bankruptcy, citing “insurmountable” financial challenges despite having raised over USD 1.1 billion. It will continue operations through the Chapter 11 restructuring process. The company faced headwinds from a slowdown in the US electric vehicle market, alongside the withdrawal of the unspent portion of its $316 million grant the US Department of Energy (DOE) for its Kentucky facility. This marks the second bankruptcy at a major US battery recycler, following Li-Cycle’s collapse in May 2025, underscoring increasing financial stress across the sector.

The recycling of battery scrap typically begins with a mechanical pretreatment step to produce black mass – the material which contains valuable critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt. The first stage of this process generally requires batteries be discharged, dismantled and fed directly into a shredding system. Then the shredded material is sieved, separated and classified to isolate key fractions such as aluminium, copper, plastics and the black mass.

At the beginning of this year, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the final Measures for the Comprehensive Utilisation of NEV Batteries, which took effect on 1 April 2026, meaning the industry is now entering its first full compliance phase.  This update clarifies the definition of end-of-life (EOL) EV batteries, battery coding requirements, recycling responsibilities across the battery lifecycle, and information reporting obligations.

Black mass payables underwent a dynamic Q1 as trading levels for the recycled intermediate responded to bullish virgin battery metal prices, quietness through the CNY period in February, and a continued trend towards regional divergence.

Direct recycling is a process in which the cathode and anode active materials within scrap batteries are regenerated without breaking them down into individual battery chemicals as is required by more traditional battery recycling methods. Whilst direct recycling can have a higher recovery rate than other methods such as hydrometallurgy, its commercial adoption is hindered by its technological immaturity and the need for well-sorted waste streams. China is leading the way in the technology, with commercial direct recycling of high-grade production scrap growing in the country. However its application to end of life material and in regions outside of China is limited. In 2025, just 3% of global recycling capacity was for direct recycling with all such projects located in China according to Benchmark’s Recycling Service.