Ecobat, one of the largest battery recyclers globally, has made plans to locate its its first North American battery recycling facility in the Phoenix metro and bring 60 new jobs to the area.
The company announced that the facility will be located in Casa Grande and is Dallas-based Ecobat’s third lithium-ion battery recycling facility. The new location will produce an estimated 10,000 tons of recycled material per year with plans to expand capacity. Operations are expected to start in the third quarter of 2023.
“This facility, like our lithium-ion battery recycling facilities in Germany and the United Kingdom, represents a significant milestone in Ecobat’s strategy to grow our lithium-ion battery recycling business to a scale, similar to our world-leading lead battery recycling business,” said Ecobat CEO Marcus Randolph in a statement.
Ecobat Solutions Arizona Inc. purchased an existing facility for $9.6 million in all cash along V I P Boulevard just south of Main Avenue in Casa Grande in December, Pinal County documents show. Ecobat acquired the 64,600-square-foot facility on about 10 acres from Casa Grande Professional Investments. It’s unclear whether Ecobat plans to build an additional facility or use the existing building for operations.
The company said its new location will be located about one mile from its existing Ecobat Resources Arizona facility, which has manufactured anodes for 15 years and is located at 602 Swanson St. in Casa Grande.
Ecobat said it will repurpose lithium-ion batteries that are reaching the end of their life through diagnostics, sorting, shredding and material separation to produce a “concentrated black mass containing the valuable materials in lithium-ion batteries.”
“I get asked constantly, what are we going to do when we totally convert to electric vehicles and we have to deal with old batteries,” said Casa Grande Mayor Craig McFarland in a statement. “This new lithium-ion battery recycling plant is a great example of exactly what we need; a company succeeding and expanding a sustainable operation in our community. We welcome the second component of their operations to the city of Casa Grande and applaud their efforts to use sustainable practices in their industry while providing jobs for residents who look for opportunities to work closer to home.”
Pinal County has become home to the growing electric vehicle and energy storage industries over the past decade with the additions of Lucid Motors, Nikola and LG Energy Solution. Last year, Heritage Battery Recycling, an affiliate of Cirba Solutions, announced plans to build a lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Eloy.
Cooper Fratt, John Werstler and Tanner Ferrandi of CBRE Group Inc. represented Ecobat on the sale, while John Pompay and Will Groves of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, according to real estate database Vizzda.
Ecobat said that in 2021, its battery recycling business fully recycled 70 million car batteries.