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Are EV Batteries Recyclable?

Union of Concerned Scientists

As electric vehicle (EV) sales continue to increase, questions about how these cars and their batteries will be disposed of have been top of mind for current owners, future buyers, policymakers, and many experts in the automotive industry. Current lithium-ion battery collection, repurposing, and recycling network in North America.

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How are EV batteries (actually) recycled?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Electric Vehicle (EV) battery recycling is crucial to a sustainable, electrified transportation system. A substantial portion of key minerals for electrifying could come from recycled batteries by 2050, dramatically reducing the need for new mining. The recycler takes the battery pack apart into smaller modules.

Recycling 334
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Transforming Transportation: Opportunity for a Sustainable and Equitable Electric Future

Union of Concerned Scientists

Electric transportation is essential for a cleaner and healthier world. Replacing gasoline vehicles with electric can reduce emissions that cause climate change and illnesses. Researchers like me are putting a microscope to the electric vehicles (EVs) because, as with any extraction and manufacturing, there are associated impacts.

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Guiding Principles for EV Battery Recycling Policy

Union of Concerned Scientists

Recovering these materials from retired electric vehicle (EV) batteries is an alternative source to mining. Essentially, the materials recovered through battery recycling can replace future material supply that would otherwise need to be extracted from the earth to meet demand.

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Are There Enough Materials to Manufacture All the Electric Vehicles Needed?  

Union of Concerned Scientists

The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is necessary to decrease climate-changing emissions. These materials are primarily supplied through two sources: 1) newly mined or 2) recovered by recycling batteries already in circulation. This is in stark contrast to a future without high recycling rates. Recycling has many benefits.

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Want Clean Energy? Then You Also Want Battery Recycling.

Union of Concerned Scientists

Lithium-ion batteries are essential for decarbonizing transportation through electric vehicles and building a resilient, renewable energy grid through energy storage batteries. Increasing the reuse and recycling of batteries at their end of life is essential to increasing the sustainability of batteries and creating a circular economy.

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Electric bikes: a Less-Polluting Option for Commutes and Errands in the “New Normal”

Union of Concerned Scientists

But pre-COVID, most days I used an electric bike to handle the 11-mile round trip to and from the Oakland UCS office. Using an electric bike gave me the opportunity to get to the office as quickly as with a car, with virtually no pollution and the added bonus of some outside time. But why are electric bikes important?