Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Bread
Plastic raw material is cheaper than recycled material, so aside from green cred, there’s no incentive to use it.
If the battery recyclers can break down used batteries into economically viable reclaimed materials for suppliers, it will be a self sustaining model.
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If.
That's my point with the plastic comparison, plastic really doesn't make much sense to recycle from an economics perspective. As history hs shown, when it stops making sense, that shit ends up in landfills.
Breaking down plastic is a straightforward process. Not so for the EV batteries.
I think we should recycle them, problem is they aren't well suited to recycling. Hence the reason the capacity to recycle is lagging so far behind the generation of batteries. Tesla alone makes half million tons of batteries at their current pace (over 1 million cars a year, each with a half-ton battery), and is rapidly expanding.
This story seems to highlight the low capacity of the system, and the high cost to process them.
We may well end up subsidizing that part of the process too.