Lithium costs a lot of money—so why aren't we recycling lithium batteries


A study earlier this year in the Journal of the Indian Institute of Science found that less than 1 percent of Lithium-ion batteries get recycled in the US and EU compared to 99 percent of lead-acid batteries. Lead author of study Nikhil Gupta, professor and member of the Sustainable Engineering Initiative at NYU Tandon, explained how “Every time you buy a battery for your car, you have to give the whole battery back, and then it goes into the recycling chain,” adding that recycling lithium batteries on a global scale “would require us to make major advancements in battery technology. There's no doubt about it.”