Lots of things are toxic. It doesn't mean they poison people. The starter battery in a gasoline car contains enough lead to kill about 1000 people, but it doesn

Lots of things are toxic. It doesn't mean they poison people. The starter battery in a gasoline car contains enough lead to kill about 1000 people, but it doesn't do it. Batteries don't transmute. Lead is still lead. Lithium is still lithium. Batteries are about the most perfect recycling case: mass produced, made to exact specifications from very few compounds, easily separated, and are just the right things to turn back into batteries and sell! Missouri's last lead mine is closing because lead from recycling batteries is so cheap it doesn't pay to mine new lead unless you are also getting some silver or copper and their remaining lead veins are unfortunately too pure. So electric car batteries get used in cars until their capacity is diminished to an uncomfortable level, then they go serve as stationary storage where the energy density requirement is less demanding for a few more years until they are too worn for even that, at which point they get sold to the recycler and turn into new batteries for cars.