f your used EV's battery pack ever needs to be retired — damaged in an accident, failed out of warranty, or simply at true end of life — there's genuinely good news: a free, industry-run collection program now covers the whole country. The less comfortable news, and the reason this deserves a fuller look than a press release, is that two of the specialized facilities Canada was counting on to actually process those batteries have collapsed into insolvency within the past year, and there's still no binding regulation requiring any of this to keep working.
Quick answer: An industry-led EV Battery Recovery Program — 16 automakers working with Call2Recycle Canada — expanded nationwide in mid-2025 after a two-year Quebec pilot, offering free collection of damaged or end-of-life EV batteries through dismantlers, repair shops, and dealers. It's real and it works today. But two of Canada's most significant battery-recycling processors, Li-Cycle and Lithion Technologies, both filed for creditor protection within the past year, forcing Call2Recycle to redirect some batteries to U.S. processors. With no binding federal or provincial regulation requiring recycling capacity to keep pace with a growing fleet of EVs, experts are warning the system may not be ready for the much larger wave of retirements still to come.
The free collection program, explained
The EV Battery Recovery Program is an industry self-regulation effort, not a government mandate — 16 automakers coordinate with Call2Recycle Canada to collect damaged or defective EV batteries at no cost to whoever's holding them, typically dismantlers, independent repair shops, and dealerships. It launched as a two-year pilot in Quebec starting around 2023, and expanded nationwide in June 2025 after that pilot was judged successful. Once collected, a battery is either remanufactured for reuse, repurposed into a second-life application like stationary energy storage, recycled to recover its lithium, nickel, and cobalt content, or sent to a manufacturer's own research facility — the goal in every case being to keep the pack out of a landfill.
For a used EV owner today, the practical version of this is straightforward: if your pack fails or gets damaged, your dealer or repair shop almost certainly has a path to have it collected for free rather than you needing to arrange disposal yourself.
The record numbers behind it
Call2Recycle Canada — the organization actually handling collection logistics — had a genuinely record year in 2025, collecting more than 8.01 million kilograms of batteries, its highest annual total ever, and pushing its cumulative total past 60 million kilograms collected since the organization's founding. President and CEO Joe Zenobio called it "an extraordinary milestone" as the organization entered its 30th year, with more than 15,000 drop-off locations now operating across eight provinces and two territories. Worth noting: that 8-million-kilogram figure covers all battery types Call2Recycle handles, not EV packs specifically — there's no separate public breakdown yet of how much of that volume is large-format EV batteries versus consumer electronics batteries.
The processing capacity problem
Here's where the picture gets more complicated. Collecting a battery is only the first step — it then has to actually be processed by a specialized facility, and Canada's capacity for that has taken two serious hits within about five months of each other.
Li-Cycle Holdings, a major North American battery recycler operating a "Spoke and Hub" network of processing facilities, filed for creditor protection under Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act on May 15, 2025, citing financial troubles and an inability to meet its operational funding requirements. Glencore Canada stepped in with a debtor-in-possession financing facility and a stalking-horse bid for key assets, which may preserve some of the infrastructure, but the filing itself signalled real fragility in what had been one of the continent's most prominent battery-recycling operations.
Then, on October 28, 2025, Quebec's Superior Court granted CCAA protection to Lithion Technologies — a company that had opened a purpose-built, $40-million battery-processing facility in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec less than a year earlier, in late 2024, backed by more than $100 million in total investment including General Motors Ventures and Investissement Québec. Lithion's plant converted end-of-life EV batteries into "black mass," a concentrated intermediate material later refined into battery-grade metals — exactly the kind of domestic processing capacity Canada's recovery system was designed to depend on. Despite the backing, the company faced continued operating losses in a slowing EV-battery market and an imminent cash shortfall.
The direct consequence: Call2Recycle has confirmed it's now redirecting some batteries to U.S. processors as a result of Lithion's collapse, a shift the organization's own Director of Account Management acknowledged brings "longer transportation routes," "higher associated costs," and the potential for collection delays. It's a concrete illustration of a broader vulnerability — Canada's EV battery recovery network still relies on a genuinely limited number of specialized processing facilities, and losing even one has immediate, measurable ripple effects.
No binding regulation behind any of this
The structural reason both of those collapses matter more than an ordinary corporate bankruptcy story is that nothing requires Canada's battery-recycling capacity to exist at all. Reporting on the issue has been blunt about it, describing the current landscape as effectively a "Wild West" — with more than 600,000 EVs already on Canadian roads and regulation around EV battery recycling described as "virtually nonexistent" at the federal level. Only one province had announced formal rules in this space, and even that province's approach was described as being walked back rather than strengthened. Industry groups including the Automotive Recyclers of Canada and OARA have been pushing for a formal Extended Producer Responsibility framework — one with enforceable service standards, transparent funding mechanisms, and mandated backup processing capacity — specifically because the current voluntary, industry-led system has no requirement to maintain redundancy when a facility like Li-Cycle's or Lithion's goes under.
What this means for a used EV owner today
If you're weighing what happens to your specific battery pack right now, the honest answer is: the free collection program works today, and a battery you need collected will almost certainly get picked up through your dealer or repair shop without issue. The concern here isn't about your car specifically — it's about the system's resilience as far larger volumes of aging EV batteries reach end of life over the next decade. A collection network with no binding requirement to maintain domestic processing capacity, that's already had to reroute volume to the U.S. after losing a purpose-built $40-million facility, is a genuine long-term risk worth watching rather than a reason for alarm about a battery retiring today. If you want the technical background on what's actually inside these packs and why the metals matter enough to fight over recycling capacity for, our EV battery types guide covers the chemistry, and checking EV battery health before buying is the more immediately useful read if you're shopping used right now rather than planning for end-of-life disposal.
The bottom line
Canada does have a genuinely useful, free, nationwide program for collecting damaged or end-of-life EV batteries, run by automakers and Call2Recycle, and it's backed by a real, record-setting collection infrastructure. What it isn't backed by is guaranteed domestic processing capacity — two of the country's most significant battery-recycling operations, Li-Cycle and Lithion, both collapsed into creditor protection within the same year, and Canada now leans partly on U.S. facilities to fill the gap. Without binding regulation requiring recycling capacity to scale alongside the EV fleet, the system that works fine today is one insolvency filing away from strain the next time a major processor goes under.
FAQ
Is EV battery recycling actually free in Canada? Yes, for collection — the industry-led EV Battery Recovery Program, run by 16 automakers with Call2Recycle Canada, offers free collection of damaged or end-of-life EV batteries nationwide through dismantlers, repair shops, and dealerships.
What happens to a battery after it's collected? Depending on its condition, it's remanufactured for reuse, repurposed for a second-life application like energy storage, recycled to recover lithium, nickel, and cobalt, or sent to a manufacturer's research facility.
Why did Li-Cycle and Lithion both go bankrupt? Both cited financial pressure from a slowing EV-battery market relative to their cost structures. Li-Cycle filed for creditor protection in May 2025, and Lithion Technologies — despite a purpose-built $40-million Quebec facility that opened in late 2024 — followed in October 2025.
Is there a law requiring EV batteries to be recycled in Canada? No binding federal regulation currently requires it. The recovery program that exists today is voluntary and industry-led. Only one province has announced formal rules in this space, and reporting describes even that effort as being scaled back rather than strengthened.
Sources: McMillan LLP, "Quebec's EV Battery Recovery Program Goes Nationwide"; Call2Recycle Canada, "Call2Recycle Canada Marks National Battery Day with Record-Breaking Year"; United Recyclers Group, reporting on CBC News, "Canada had big EV battery recycling plans, but without regulations it's the 'Wild West,' expert warns"; Automotive Recyclers of Canada, "Lithion: Shutdown highlights EV battery recycling network fragility"; SustainableBiz Canada, "Battery recycler Li-Cycle applies for bankruptcy protection".
