Can Batteries Be Recycled?

What to do with the batteries.

I’m guilty of spending some time on some of the social media sites. Mostly I wind up watching the ‘discussion’ between the various ‘sides’ of the climate issues. Truth is, there is very little actual ‘discussions’ at all- more like hurling narratives at each other and when that doesn’t work, a volley of insults soon follows.

Many times one ‘side’ or the other simply starts with insults (or at least condescending quips aimed at belittling).

In all of that, one of the common things I see is there are some enthusiasts for electric vehicles. Turns out EVs have a lot of really cool technology and there are some very big fans of that technology- that haven’t a care in the world about the ‘climate’ side of them.

Likewise, many fans of the rooftop solar technology are more into the idea of owning their own power source and on-site power generation than they are about proving if the ice melting is caused by Evel Knievel’s motorcycles and Grave Diggers monster truck engines or not.

In both cases, the ‘climate deniers’ (as some would call them) like to attack EV’s and Solar as a greater strategy to ‘prove’ there is no climate issue.

I guess they figure that anyone who likes EVs or solar must be a ‘climate alarmist’ (as some would call them) and therefore must be attacked at every point.

Enter in batteries. There are three main ‘arguments’ the ‘climate deniers’ have about batteries:

1. They can’t be recycled
2. They take up precious rare earth materials that have to be mined (by forced child labor, no less)
3. They explode

I’m not going to go into #3 other than to say that battery technology has advanced and the days of batteries exploding are mostly behind us. They know why those batteries were exploding and have updated the engineering- nearly eliminating that issue.

As for #2- yes, the batteries do take raw materials and yes those have to be mined. No, not all the mines are problematic with labor laws. The industry is aware of it and there is efforts in play (like in the coffee industry with the ethically sourced movement)

Actually, if anyone were concerned about that I think they’d have a hard time justifying shopping at Walmart, Costco, or Target… just sayin.

Anyways, as far as recycling goes- yeah, there’s a recycling path. In fact, there’s money and big business behind it. So much so that there are companies that pay for the used batteries so they can recycle them…

Recently North America’s largest battery recycling operation opened in Covington, Georgia that breaks down used EV batteries and processes the material to be turned into new batteries.

They also do the batteries from consumer electronics and solar power systems as well.

This idea that batteries can’t be recycled is bah-loh-ney, but don’t just take my word for it, scope out this article about it:

“The Biggest EV Battery Recycling Plant in The US is Open for Business”

https://batteriesnews.com/the-biggest-ev-battery-recycling-plant-us-open-business/

As for solar power systems, not every homeowner will need or even want a battery, but if they do- it sure is nice to know that the batteries will be recycled when it is time to replace them.

If you are looking into rooftop solar for your home, I have a book coming soon. Click here to get notified when I release Tucson Solar Insider Desk Guide for Buying Solar

Be Good!
Curtis