Canada

A few years ago, Li-Cycle was one of the biggest players in electric vehicle battery recycling in North America, providing a roadmap to a circular, sustainable economy for electric vehicles.

But just last month, the Toronto-based company filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Canada after years of struggling to get a facility off the ground in Rochester, N.Y. The company said the planned hub would have been able to extract lithium and other critical minerals from recycled material to actually build new EV batteries — a crucial step that North American recyclers haven't achieved on a commercial scale yet.

The bankruptcy is a sign, some experts say, that the market can't sustain the industry without proper government regulation providing incentives and structure.