Batteries Are Forever. Really.
“Batteries are often described as resource-intensive. With a 95% proven recycling rate and a 10yr life, over 50% of battery minerals mined today will still be in use in 130 years. Add 5% performance improvement per cycle, and they will be delivering services forever.”
— Michael Liebreich , CEO of Liebreich Associates, former CEO of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Need-to-Know: Lots of disinformation about resources needed for batteries and battery recycling.
Here’s some reality from the world’s foremost battery recycling expert, Hans Eric Melin, Founder and Managing Director of Circular Energy Storage.
Over 90% of lithum-ion batteries are recycled.
EV batteries and industrial batteries are banned from landfill in Europe, the US, Canada and many other countries. Even in countries with no bans these batteries are too valuable to throw away.
In China batteries with cobalt (cellphones, etc) trade for around $5,000/tonne. Lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP batteries) that don’t have cobalt or any other valuable metals trade at around $1,000 per tonne.
Need-to-Know: It is a myth that only 5% of batteries are recycled.
The origin of the myth comes from 2011 European report about battery collection, not recycling. Specifically, only 5% of batteries sold in Europe between 2007 and 2010 were collected according to the report. Of course, many of the 95% remaining batteries were still in use.
Lithium-ion batteries in cellphones and laptops will be recycled when the device is reused, remanufactured, or recycled. This is case for the vast majority for devices with batteries.
Need-to-Know: Batteries are in fact very resource efficient – especially compared to the fossil fuels.
For more on the truth about battery recycling checkout this excellent podcast featuring Liebreich and Melin.
Until next time, be well.
Stephen
P.S. If you aren’t convinced because various studies/articles cite that erronous 5% figure, Melin has a detailed explanation here.