4 ms·

Not really. Batteries like AAA are already being recycled because it makes economical sense. In fact thieves steal it and need vigilance. You are confused with

Not really. Batteries like AAA are already being recycled because it makes economical sense. In fact thieves steal it and need vigilance. You are confused with "electrical components" that are mostly plastic, very hard to disassemble and not worth it economically. A Tesla battery cost over $6000. Materials like Cobalt or Lithium are worth a lot in a concentrated form, much easier than extracting it from the mine. As technology improves, the metals in those batteries are worth more. So what is going to happen is: Short term: people will use their old car batteries for electrical network support. Medium term: Governments are going to require recycling protocols like they already do with ICEs cars. Long term: Companies will develop protocols to recycle it. A battery is the same thing repeated hundreds of times. The individual cells are standardized,and platforms will be shared between different manufacturers, that makes it way easier to recycle.

sokoloff 5y ago
> Batteries like AAA are already being recycled because it makes economical sense. Are they? My depleted AAA alkalines go straight in the trash (which is the direction of our fairly green-friendly city of Cambridge, MA). * - https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/householdhazardouswastedisposal#!rc-cpage=252958 https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/householdhazardouswaste...
- rjsw 5y ago
  > our fairly green-friendly city of Cambridge, MA Everything is relative, they don't go in the trash anywhere I know in Europe.
  - rapnie 5y ago
    > anywhere I know I was recently quite disillusioned about that by the series "The Vuilnisman" (The Garbage Man) in The Netherlands, where point for point the entire responsible waste disposal and recycling was shown to be mostly a paper reality. For instance numerous tricks exist to label trash as building material and it can be dumped anywhere for a good profit. If only we knew.

sokoloff 5y ago

> Batteries like AAA are already being recycled because it makes economical sense. Are they? My depleted AAA alkalines go straight in the trash (which is the direction of our fairly green-friendly city of Cambridge, MA). * - https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/householdhazardouswastedisposal#!rc-cpage=252958 https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/householdhazardouswaste...

rjsw 5y ago
> our fairly green-friendly city of Cambridge, MA Everything is relative, they don't go in the trash anywhere I know in Europe.
- rapnie 5y ago
  > anywhere I know I was recently quite disillusioned about that by the series "The Vuilnisman" (The Garbage Man) in The Netherlands, where point for point the entire responsible waste disposal and recycling was shown to be mostly a paper reality. For instance numerous tricks exist to label trash as building material and it can be dumped anywhere for a good profit. If only we knew.