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> we can work on to get out of oil's malthusian trap. Say all cars on earth ultimately ends up converting to electric. That is a lot of batteries, right? To pr
by babyrainbow 9y ago
> we can work on to get out of oil's malthusian trap.
Say all cars on earth ultimately ends up converting to electric. That is a lot of batteries, right? To produce and to dispose.
Any idea how that is going to affect the environment?
- jackmott 9y agoToyota started preparing ahead of time for battery recyling years ago for the prius well before there was a need. Honda Tesla and other companies have also been proactively working on it. Lead acid batteries can be and are recycled very well. Lithium Ion is harder but it can be done. It is worth noting that even ignoring battery recycling, an average Li car battery is going to be about ~600lbs of material (currently, this seems to still be improving) A gasoline powered car that does 30mpg and lasts 200k miles will burn through ~475,200lbs of material in it's life. Putting it all into the atmosphere. I've yet to track down any real attempt at quantifying the sum total lifetime environmental costs of electric vs gas powered vehicles that wasn't clearly a hatchet job by one 'side' or the other. I'm sure some exist, maybe someone can post some good references.
- bluGill 9y agoCar batteries are very much recycled. Of course lead-acid is different from Li-ion, but the precedent is there.