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My understanding is this is completely expected given that lithium is expensive to mine. Regular lead based car batteries are recycled at like 99% rate IIRC. Recycling works best when the waste has a market value, which is clearly the case here. A more interesting question would be whether they're paying market price for the minerals.

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I decided to wade through the comments to see if this article was in fact as not-news to me as it was to someone else.

I'm not trying to be drab on the article, nor people who found it to be something new that they just learned.

I will echo your sentiment and add that lead is also listed legally as a "hazardous substance" here in the US which means that incentivizing it to be recycled is the most economical while also being ecological.

It also works best when the valuable thing is collected in nice big amounts like it is for car batteries. I imagine the lithium in coin cell batteries is not recycled at anywhere near the same rate!

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