As the number of EVs on the road increases and more start reaching the end of their life, it seems the hazardous waste from their discarded batteries is also on the rise.
Apparently in Australia, less than 3% of EV and hybrid batteries are captured for recycling.
This is not good, as the metals and components are both hazardous and precious (since they’re raw materials that are mined, and we need to be doing as little of that as possible).
A handful of companies globally are accredited to manage the recycling of these batteries – Envirostream here in Australia, and Redwood Materials in the US were the names that came up most often in articles.
Redwood is actually creating a completely localised circular process of recycling and rebuilding batteries – they even capture the remaining charge from old batteries to power the recycling process itself.
I’m amazed at the low number that’s being recycled – for one, the custom EV builder market is always on the lookout for decent EV batteries… Maybe a few partnerships and intros need to happen.
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