Cyclic Materials, Lime announce partnership

Under the partnership, Cyclic will recover rare earth materials from decommissioned motors from Lime vehicles in the U.S. and Canadian markets.

A person riding an electric scooter and a person riding an electric bike by a river.

Photo courtesy of Cyclic Materials

Cyclic Materials, a Toronto-based company in the circular supply of rare-earth elements (REEs), and Lime, a provider of shared micromobility electric vehicles, have announced a strategic agreement to recycle magnets from retired electric motors powering e-bikes and e-scooters across Canada and the United States.

The companies claim their agreement marks one of the first at-scale recycling initiatives focused on rare earth magnets in North America in the micromobility sector. 

“Cyclic is excited to partner with Lime, a company demonstrating what true circularity looks like in action,” says Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO and co-founder of Cyclic. “This partnership sets a powerful precedent for how innovative companies can close critical loops in the clean energy supply chain through the recycling of the permanent magnets that power modern mobility. We are proud to support Lime’s bold net-zero and sustainability goals, while helping build a future where materials are recycled and reused, sustaining a more resilient supply of rare earth elements across the industry.” 

According to Cyclic, it will recover rare-earth materials from decommissioned motors from vehicles in Lime’s U.S. and Canadian markets. The agreement will be serviced primarily through Cyclic’s recently announced Mesa, Arizona, facility as well as its Kingston, Ontario, location, bringing scalable and sustainable rare-earth recycling to what it says is one of the fastest-growing clean transportation segments. 

Today, less than 1 percent of rare earth magnets are recycled globally, leaving an “above-ground mine” of more than 43,000 metric tons of end-of-life NdFeB magnets expected in the U.S. alone by 2035, according to an Adamas Intelligence report cited by Cyclic. 

Cyclic and Lime say they are addressing this challenge by leveraging Cyclic’s MagCycle and REEPure technologies to recover rare earth magnets from end-of-life vehicles.

“Circularity is a core part of our sustainability mission. Partnering with Cyclic Materials helps us take a meaningful step towards enhancing the recovery of already-processed materials and placing them for reuse back into the supply chain,” says Andrew Savage, vice president of sustainability at Lime. “Through Cyclic's innovative approach, we are able to give new life to critical materials from decommissioned electric motors, increasing the recovery of these materials through the end-of-life process and, hopefully, supporting such practices to scale across electric mobility and beyond.” 

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