"The rate at which we're growing the industry is absolutely scary," says Paul Anderson from Birmingham University.
He's talking about the market for electric cars in Europe.
By 2030, the EU hopes, there will be 30 million electric cars on European roads.
"It's something that's never really been done before at that rate of growth for a completely new product," says Dr Anderson, who is also the co-director of the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials.
While electric vehicles (EVs) may be carbon neutral during their working lifetime, he's concerned about what happens when they run out of road - in particular what happens to the batteries.
"In 10 to 15 years when there are large numbers coming to the end of their life, it's going to be very important that we have a recycling industry," he points out.
