A lot of what you wrote is wrong. Cobalt is not a rare earth metal in terms of abundance or chemical classification. There are a number of niche rare-earth lit

A lot of what you wrote is wrong. Cobalt is not a rare earth metal in terms of abundance or chemical classification. There are a number of niche rare-earth lithium batteries chemistries on the market, but these batteries are not manufactured in large quantities and are quite expensive. Cobalt hasn't been a waste product of nickel and tin mining for several decades. It is a very desirable byproduct of nickel and tin mining, and in many modern mines, the nickel and tin are the waste product. (Cobalt is currently selling for $72,xxx/ton. Nickel is selling for 22,2xx/ton; Tin for 25,xxx/ton.) Lithium-battery makers are moving away from cobalt-based chemistries because it is too expensive, but cobalt chemistries are still considered the most performative. Lithium-based batteries are highly flammable, and extinguishing fires in lithium-based batteries generally takes a lot of water (several fire trucks worth) and time (up to a week in the worst cases). Just last week a story hit HN about a Tesla that burned for several days and required 40,000 gallons of water to put out. Lithium batteries are not easily recycled. While the lithium itself is trivial to recycle, the products containing lithium (batteries) generally require a fair amount of work to disassemble before the lithium can be recycled. Lead acid batteries are actually much easier to recycle due to their much simpler construction.