Progress in the sustainable recycling of spent lithium‐ion batteries

Abstract Lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) are booming in multiple fields due to a rapid development in the last decade. However, limited by operational lifespans, a growing number of spent LIBs reaching the end of their lives are consequently faced with serious accumulation and descended to hazardous waste. Without proper disposal, the spent LIBs will inevitably cause negative influence on the ecology and undermine the sustainable manufacture of LIBs. The initial research of recycling strategies mainly focused on the optimization of metallurgical processes. Recently, the sustainability of the recycling process has attracted much more attention and become an important factor. Here, we summarize the recent progress of the spent LIBs recycling from a sustainable perspective, especially discussing the green innovations in recycling strategies for spent LIBs. Through this article, we expect to reveal the challenges and developing tendency of the recycling strategies and provide a guideline for future researches on processing spent LIBs and beyond, like the recycling of the solid‐state lithium metal batteries.