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> easy to recycle Maybe. But IIRC practical reality is that no one actually does this, and there is no infrastructure setup for this. Something like <1% of rar

> easy to recycle Maybe. But IIRC practical reality is that no one actually does this, and there is no infrastructure setup for this. Something like <1% of rare earths in product are recycled. Please correct me if I'm outdated.

mgiampapa 2y ago
EVs (and their resulting large battery packs) haven't been available at scale long enough, but there are already established businesses for recycling standard car batteries and it's why you pay a separate "core" deposit in the US to ensure they go back into the system. People are starting these businesses already, it's yet another logistics problem to solve. Right now there is more money in pulling apart the packs the using the cells as salvage than there is recycling, but as more and more EVs reach end of life you can bet it will be a sizable market.
- aidenn0 2y ago
  Everyone compares Li-ion recycling to starter battery recycling, but starter battery recycling is extracting a single element that makes up almost all of the mass of the battery. There are many different cathode chemistries all in use for lithium ion cells, so the logistics problem is significantly more complicated. Presumably a specific chemistry will end up winning out for chars, but, IMO, most of the cars on the road now will never have their cells recycled.
  - adgjlsfhk1 2y ago
    basically all batteries now are 1 of 2 types, and the differences within those types largely relate to manufacturing methods and trace elements that probably aren't worth recycling anyway.
jppope 2y ago
Pretty sure this is what Redwood does: https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/ https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/
plorkyeran 2y ago
They’re currently so cheap and plentiful that it doesn’t really make economic sense to recycle them. They’re recyclable in the sense that it would become a realistic option if supplies became limited, which isn’t true of everything.

mgiampapa 2y ago

EVs (and their resulting large battery packs) haven't been available at scale long enough, but there are already established businesses for recycling standard car batteries and it's why you pay a separate "core" deposit in the US to ensure they go back into the system. People are starting these businesses already, it's yet another logistics problem to solve. Right now there is more money in pulling apart the packs the using the cells as salvage than there is recycling, but as more and more EVs reach end of life you can bet it will be a sizable market.

aidenn0 2y ago
Everyone compares Li-ion recycling to starter battery recycling, but starter battery recycling is extracting a single element that makes up almost all of the mass of the battery. There are many different cathode chemistries all in use for lithium ion cells, so the logistics problem is significantly more complicated. Presumably a specific chemistry will end up winning out for chars, but, IMO, most of the cars on the road now will never have their cells recycled.
- adgjlsfhk1 2y ago
  basically all batteries now are 1 of 2 types, and the differences within those types largely relate to manufacturing methods and trace elements that probably aren't worth recycling anyway.

jppope 2y ago

Pretty sure this is what Redwood does: https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/ https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/

plorkyeran 2y ago

They’re currently so cheap and plentiful that it doesn’t really make economic sense to recycle them. They’re recyclable in the sense that it would become a realistic option if supplies became limited, which isn’t true of everything.