This is what I wonder, especially with Elon building the so called 'giga factory'. How sustainable really is it?
Lead acid car batteries are already collected for recycling at very high rates in most areas, so there's no reason why li-ion car batteries wouldn't be collected and recycled as well.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/c...
Newer forms of Lithium Ion batteries may avoid the Cobalt, but Cobalt-based Lithium Ion is still the most popular IIRC. Cobalt Mining is dangerous, toxic, and centralized in politically unstable regions (Child Labor, poor conditions, etc. etc.)
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Lithium itself is located in many locations around the world. IIRC, there's a bit Lithium Mine in Nevada.