Redwood Materials Inaugurates Gigafactory-Scale Battery Recycling Facility in Nevada

July 12, 2026

Company Press Release / Environmental News USA

Overview

Redwood Materials has opened a new battery recycling facility in Nevada, aiming for gigafactory-scale operations. This facility will significantly enhance battery industry sustainability by recovering valuable materials like cobalt, nickel, and lithium from used batteries and establishing a closed-loop supply chain. This opening is crucial for promoting local EV battery production in North America and reducing import dependency. Redwood Materials demonstrates leadership in achieving a circular economy.

In Depth

Key Findings

Redwood Materials has officially inaugurated a state-of-the-art battery recycling facility in Nevada, USA, with aspirations to scale it to gigafactory proportions in the future. This large-scale facility is designed to efficiently recover scarce and valuable minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel from used electric vehicle (EV) batteries and household batteries. This opening represents a groundbreaking step towards establishing a sustainable battery material supply chain in North America and significantly reducing the environmental footprint of the entire battery industry.

Technical / Clinical Details

Redwood Materials’ recycling process involves safely dismantling used batteries and then employing a proprietary hybrid approach combining hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical methods to recover high-purity, battery-grade materials. Specifically, battery packs are first disassembled, cells removed, and then shredded to produce an intermediate product known as ‘black mass.’ From this black mass, metals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper are chemically separated and refined, preparing them for reuse in new battery manufacturing. The company targets a high material recovery rate of over 95%, which dramatically reduces reliance on newly mined materials. This closed-loop system ensures sustainability across the entire battery lifecycle.

Background & Context

With the proliferation of electric vehicles and the transition to renewable energy, global battery demand is surging. However, the supply of key battery materials like lithium and cobalt faces geopolitical risks, environmental concerns, and human rights issues. Battery recycling is essential for addressing these challenges and building a sustainable battery supply chain. In the U.S., policies like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) strongly promote domestic battery manufacturing and recycling, making Redwood Materials’ initiative critically important from both national security and economic independence perspectives.

Strategic Significance & Outlook

The opening of the new recycling facility in Nevada will significantly expand Redwood Materials’ battery recycling capacity in North America, playing an indispensable role in the growth of the electric vehicle industry. The company aims to establish a ‘closed-loop’ system where recycled materials are supplied to new battery cells manufactured in neighboring gigafactories. This will stabilize raw material costs for batteries and strengthen the supply chain. In the future, this model is expected to be replicated globally, accelerating the transition of the entire battery industry towards a circular economy.

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