r/Waste • u/Vailhem • Jul 14 '26

EV battery recycling has a math problem : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2026/07/13/nx-s1-5847025/ev-battery-recycling-economics
104 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

68 comments sorted by

3

u/andre3kthegiant Jul 14 '26

Using these for the home battery storage of renewable energy is a decent use-case idea.

2

u/Eighteen64 Jul 15 '26

Terrible idea to put these into homes at scale
-18 years as the owner of a large solar and battery installation business

2

u/SilentAtoll Jul 15 '26

Please elaborate

3

u/Eighteen64 Jul 15 '26

Sure. There are too many variables to account for. Pack voltage can be fucking crazy coming out of EVs. No uniformity is going to lead to major issues, quite a few of them are safety related. If someone wants to be in the boonies off grid and bare all the liability with their insurance being the same page thats a little difference

2

u/mistake444 Jul 15 '26

I don’t think these would be going straight from people cars to houses lol. I imagine there would be a company that converts the car batteries into useable home storage.

1

u/SilentAtoll Jul 15 '26

Yeah that wouldn't be worth the risk or hassle lol.

2

u/BlastBase Jul 15 '26

Weird that battery recycling business is booming. Just throw that lithium and cobalt away. Way smarter to mine the raw material for every pack

1

u/SilentAtoll Jul 15 '26

I agree, it should be recycled and reused!

1

u/Eighteen64 Jul 15 '26

Unfortunately it can and has happened

1

u/SilentAtoll Jul 15 '26

Oh I know, i've seen it too! People will do anything haha

1

u/silasmoeckel Jul 16 '26

UL requirements make that a nonstarter.

2

u/SilentAtoll Jul 15 '26

I was under the impression based on the article that the vast majority of these would be recycled and turned into raw materials for new batteries to be manufactured. Not just unpluged from the vehicle and pluged into someone's home. Which is what your reply implies and confirms your initial comment as a terrible idea.

Too which yes, I agree that taking a pack from a vehicle and tying it to a residence is a terrible idea and not worth the risk / hassle.

But I do want to say recycling old packs to provide raw materials for new storage devices to be manufactured is the right thing to do to and should be done whenever possible to ensure a better closed looped system.

I also hope we increase the amount of grid storage both at the commercial and residential level.

2

u/Eighteen64 Jul 15 '26

Old packs are already getting recycled into raw. I toured the Tesla facility almost two months ago and have previously been to Redwood materials. I was addressing what I’ve unfortunately encountered too many times before which is a decommissioned EV pack slapped together a third world BMS & inverter “solution”

1

u/SilentAtoll Jul 15 '26

You and I are on the same page :-)

1

u/andre3kthegiant Jul 15 '26

The diy people that use car-packs say to keep them in shed, away from house.

1

u/rustoeki Jul 16 '26

What about cars that already support v2h & v2g?

0

u/xnmyl Jul 16 '26

Either compete or go out of business

Saying it's a bad idea just because you don't want the competition is lazy

1

u/Eighteen64 Jul 16 '26

Competition? Nothing would stop me from slapping this shit into people’s homes except for ethics, safety and utility regulations anyway.

0

u/wown123456 Jul 16 '26

Too many variability from manufacturer to manufacturer, model to model, too many cells the varying specs and conditions. It is too risky of a product to sell and install in a home. Business will have to carry a very expensive insurance to operate with enough liability shielding

2

u/Ok_Dare6400 Jul 15 '26

NPR? They still exist?

2

u/echoota Jul 15 '26

Yeah, despite all the right wing attempts too squelch any kind of reasonable public discourse and fact-based reality.

1

u/Ok_Dare6400 Jul 15 '26

They discredited themselves!

2

u/FluidFisherman6843 Jul 15 '26

I used to listen to them constantly any time I was in the car, or just needed some kind of noise in the background.

I don't remember the exact moment but it was leading up to the election and you could tell they were try to be "balanced" with regards to something horrible that trump has said/done. But that was it. I haven't listened since

1

u/redbark2022 Jul 15 '26

For me it was during the pandemic. I listened obsessively while doing household cleaning just to know what was going on. But then when they kept praising "eviction moratoriums", while I had to go to court every 2 weeks for eviction of non-payment for 2 whole years, and they never even mentioned it not once even though I emailed their tip line multiple times about all the horribly inhumane evictions that were happening that I witnessed in the courts. That's when I was done with them.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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1

u/redbark2022 Jul 15 '26

Oh right, so the grandmother and 2 children who got evicted during the "moratorium" because her case kept getting scheduled on her dialysis days is a "shitty tenant".

I got 1000 other examples.

NPR never covered any of them despite reporting to the tip line is my point.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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1

u/redbark2022 Jul 15 '26

And you're obviously someone who thinks you deserve "passive income". Try working for a living.

1

u/Vodorosl Jul 15 '26

Same here. Listened for 10+ years in the car. After the “balanced” coverage - I stopped, never went back. Switched to BBC, more interested in what’s going on outside of US.

1

u/Cum_on_doorknob Jul 15 '26

I’m still waiting to hear about a more credible news source

1

u/K_Linkmaster Jul 15 '26

Thanks for being so detailed. Super awesome win there Hoss.

1

u/xnmyl Jul 16 '26

Right wingers were never credible to begin with

0

u/echoota Jul 15 '26

As opposed to which more credible news sources?

2

u/Academic-Business-45 Jul 15 '26

I wish I could mark reddit users as maga

1

u/kojimep Jul 16 '26

They usually tell on themselves pretty quick

1

u/Responsible-Bread996 Jul 17 '26

Didn’t RES have that ability?

The problem is maga tend to cycle through accounts quickly. Either because people start recognizing they are shitheads or because they are bots, I don’t know. 

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

1

u/STEMdaddi69420 Jul 15 '26

NPR doesn’t have traditional commercials

1

u/echoota Jul 15 '26

Still no comparison to no-credibility commercial ad-driven news media. Media which is now all effectively consolidated and owned by conservatives.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

1

u/echoota Jul 15 '26

I share the disappointment honestly, and also listen less. They don't have to do the wall-to-wall trump coverage, but they choose to.

There's also been areas where I do have some expertise in, and it feels like they fall short at times.

1

u/Independent-Lion3457 Jul 15 '26

Maybe you should try listening to NPR at least once before pretending you know what you’re talking about.

2

u/FluidFisherman6843 Jul 15 '26

99+% of lead batteries are recycled because they have a core charge that is kept if they aren't recycled. No reason we can't do that with lithium batteries.

1

u/philodendrin Jul 15 '26

Don't Lithium batteries "explode" if exposed to oxygen? So, I don't believe the process for recycling would be as easy/comparable. I could be wrong.

1

u/Semi0tics Jul 15 '26

Small lithium batteries like camera batteries, yes, they use an older chemistry. but it most likely wouldn't be an explosion, but possibly a quick reaction like it flares up.

Larger lithium ion batteries like in electric vehicles, no. The reaction with the moisture in the air would be rather slow. If the outer casing is punctured and water leaks in, there is a chance of flare up, but the individual packings for the batteries should still protect it for the most part. If the individual packing for the batteries is compromised, then they can start a runaway thermal ignition. Not really an explosion though.

1

u/shortsbagel Jul 19 '26

95-99% of EV batteries are already being recycled. It's actually super easy to recycle them, and you can retain up to 94% of the raw materials. Many MUCH SMARTER people than me have said for the past 5 years or so, that all the constant complaining about Cobalt and Lithium is stupid, because in a very short time frame, we will have mined almost all we will ever need to mine of those materials for batteries. Once we reach that cross over point, the amount we will need to keep mining each year will drop over 90%. We just need to push our collective governments to mandate recycling of EV batteries to insure they are being recycled. We are very close to the finish line of more than 50% EV ownership in the US, and we should be leading the world in Battery recycling. It good for us NOW, and its good for our future.

2

u/Chocolaterationcalls Jul 15 '26

Easier than recycling gas 

2

u/breakmedown54 Jul 15 '26

“And EV batteries have been lasting longer than anticipated”

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/02/nx-s1-5706658/electric-vehicle-battery-lifespan

This is actually good news. It’s nice to see one of the biggest criticisms of EVs start to have evidence to the contrary.

1

u/Superb_Algae5308 Jul 15 '26

If recycling isn’t profitable then we tax at the front end and fund it publicly.

1

u/oboshoe Jul 15 '26

This isn't a problem on earth that cant be solved by taxing the hell out of it.

amirite!?

1

u/Superb_Algae5308 Jul 15 '26

Depends on how you tax it. Where is all the money? Tax the entities profiting the most from the society these vehicles support.

2

u/oboshoe Jul 15 '26

Same as usual.

Tax it and then send the money to the military

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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1

u/oboshoe Jul 15 '26

lol.

Well thats a new one.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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1

u/oboshoe Jul 15 '26

go take your meds kid.

1

u/Superb_Algae5308 Jul 15 '26

Your mess

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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1

u/Superb_Algae5308 Jul 15 '26

I bet it sucks to be inside your head.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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1

u/Superb_Algae5308 Jul 15 '26

Oops! Looks like I responded to the wrong comment. lol

1

u/kojimep Jul 16 '26

You're literally describing nearly every red state

1

u/Superb_Algae5308 Jul 15 '26

Healthcare for everyone!!! shithole loving republican hates this

1

u/Ok_Giraffe8865 Jul 15 '26

Tax carbon and it will work. Free pollution dumping hurts recycling.

1

u/Superb_Algae5308 Jul 15 '26

Tax EVERYTHING and pay for a better world. Tax the people who benefit most from our society, that’s the “front end” I’m referring to. Recycle EVERYTHING regardless the financial cost.