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Today the vast majority of lithium-ion batteries come out of phones and laptops, and those are generally too small and annoyingly packaged to recycle economical
by jandrese 2y ago
Today the vast majority of lithium-ion batteries come out of phones and laptops, and those are generally too small and annoyingly packaged to recycle economically.
Battery packs from cars are a different matter and there are already pilot projects that are recycling them. I think in the future these projects will grow as the economics become more favorable. They're basically just mining the materials out of an extremely rich deposit.
- jwells89 2y agoIt's not something I've personally verified but I read a while back that a lot of EV batteries specifically before being recycled get upcycled in storage products for homes and power grids, where raw capacity isn't as important and better management and cooling than is possible in cars greatly mitigate further degradation.
- jandrese 2y agoYes. This is the big reason the recycle rates are currently fairly low, there just isn't much to recycle yet thanks to the longevity of EVs and the relatively healthy secondary market. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/11/old-ev-batteries-solar-power-grid-backup-b2u/ https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/11/old-ev-batte... I've been somewhat optimistic about decarbonization via electrification in the past few years. Despite the very vocal opponents online we have been installing increasing amounts of solar and wind generation each year, and EVs are getting up near the tops of sales charts. Battery storage is starting to ramp the way solar did and I'm hopeful that in a few years we will be seeing a serious reduction in CO2 emissions. Already we are seeing industry pushback with astroturf campaigns complaining that the woke are stealing food from trees. That's how you know people are making a difference.