I have a question if someone can help with We talk about recycling, I'm concerned that it's the same chatter as we had from the plastic companies in the 80-90s

I have a question if someone can help with We talk about recycling, I'm concerned that it's the same chatter as we had from the plastic companies in the 80-90s who invented the reduce reuse recycle slogan so that they could get away with selling more plastic, when its much cheaper to produce new plastic than recycle. So the question is, is it cheaper to produced new batteries or recycle old ones? I feel lithium is a transition material, until we have more sustainable battery tech.