So is lithium
Since I'm being down voted, I'm adding a reference:
5% of lithium batteries are currently recycled https://www.cas.org/resources/cas-insights/sustainability/li....
So, not renewable
Since I'm being down voted, I'm adding a reference:
5% of lithium batteries are currently recycled https://www.cas.org/resources/cas-insights/sustainability/li....
So, not renewable
This also ignores the large number of those batteries that will be re-used in grid storage after being removed from a car, and eventually recycled.
>5% of lithium batteries are currently recycled
Whether something is currently recycled and whether it can be recycled are two different questions. For a long time, copper wasn't recycled very often. Then the price went up, and now it's very valuable trash.
Lithium is absolutely renewable. It may not be renewed, but it is renewable.
Let's put more effort into getting that 5% up to 100%, that's where the real effort and headlines should focus.
75% of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_recycling#:~:text=....
We need to get lithium to that level
75% of all aluminum every smelted is still in use today: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_recycling#:~:text=....
We need to get lithium to that level before we make any more big, environmentally hazardous mines.
The lifecycle of the lithium that will come from this hypothetical mine is probably 20 years from now until the first time the material will be recycled.
The highly profitable recycling logistics will have been fully worked out a decade before it’s needed for a new mine’s output.
I'm proposing we put equal effort into both. My expectation is that we don't currently.
75% of all aluminum ever made is still in use. We should be able to do that with lithium too.
The recycling effort is highly profitable, there’s little need to subsidize it. It will simply grow and consume all available supply.
Large scale lithium battery storage is still truly just getting started. We need to be super smart with lining up supply for essential inputs for growth.