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> Consumable parts are and have never been reused Are phone parts "consumable"? I thought "consumable" meant refers to things that get "used up" like milk, ink

• digi_owl 9y ago
  Batteries can be consumable after a fashion, as they lose capacity with each charge cycle. The effect can be reduced via certain techniques (depending on the battery chemistry involved), but so far never completely eliminated. Just consider it entropy in action, really.
  • andrewkozak 9y ago
    Is there any way to reclaim the resources in a "used up" battery to reintroduce them to the production chain?
    • Dylan16807 9y ago
      You absolutely can, but it's currently not cost-effective. On the other hand it looks like it's cheap enough that making it mandatory or putting a recycling deposit on batteries would be viable.
      • toomuchtodo 9y ago
        Are battery recycling programs near you not feasible? Our local Home Depot and Best Buy stores will take back rechargeable batteries for recycling for free.
        • Dylan16807 9y ago
          Do they recycle all of a lithium ion battery?
          • ToFundorNot 9y ago
            Very little of the physical (the lithium). However all of the precious materials (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_recycling#Lithium_ion_batteries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_recycling#Lithium_ion_...). It's not worth it to extract the lithium, monetarily speaking.