4 ms·

There's always the whole "we haven't invented a good way to recycle the 20 thousand dollar toxic battery" problem still to deal with.

• aidenn0 15y ago
  Cars currently have $50 toxic batteries, in them and yet the recycling rate is near unity for them. If we can manage to recycle something worth $50, surely we can recycle something that is more valuable.
  • anamax 15y ago
    > If we can manage to recycle something worth $50, surely we can recycle something that is more valuable. That doesn't follow. Lead-acid car batteries are profitable to recycle because of the chemistry costs, not the unit cost of the battery. So, what are the costs of recycling these batteries? (Note that the answer is in terms of $/pound.) How does that compare to the cost of using new materials? (Again, the answer is in terms of $/pound.)
    • onemoreact 15y ago
      Lithium is worth a lot more than lead so unless there is significant reason to think otherwise they are probably worth recycling.
      • anamax 15y ago
        > Lithium is worth a lot That doesn't tell us anything about the relatve costs of production and recycling lithium that was used in batteries, which happens to be the relevant question.