> EU regulations requiring lithium-ion batteries to contain at least 6% recycled lithium by 2031, rising to 12% by 2036.

Seriously?

The EU should aim for massive growth in battery deployment in transportation and grid storage. If they hope for, say, 10x growth in deployed battery capacity within a time frame comparable to the lifespan of a battery, then even a 100% recycling rate would not produce enough lithium.

I suppose people could recycle batteries just to produce new batteries and acquire recycling credits, but this is absurd.

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ehnto 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It will probably amount to recycling credit schemes I am sure. But that would definitely boost lithium recycling efforts.

From memory over 1million disposable vapes are thrown away each day, from 500 of the bigger cell vapes a Youtuber was able build a home battery to power his house. I don't think 100% recycled makes sense but there sure is a lot of lithium getting thrown into the bin. Incentives to recapture that are good.

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DoctorOetker 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

500? thats just 5x10x10, even the bigger cell vapes would result in a tiny battery to power a house...

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Dylan16807 13 hours ago | parent [-]

It was under 3kWh.

	▲	ehnto 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It wasn't huge no, but we are talking about cells we throw away in the millions. Scale up the battery as needed, the cells are basically free.

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csomar 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's 730k households in a year. Cool but since these batteries will probably die within a year, then you are only able to cover 1.5 million people or so. I am not against it, but 1.5m in 8b is a drop in the ocean.

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m463 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> recycled lithium

this would be a tragedy if it leads to recycling batteries that could be repurposed, say 100kwh car batteries with decreased range that could have become 60kwh residential batteries.

	▲	lnsru 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I say as an electrician that car batteries have limited use. Chinese residential batteries can be installed by me alone. Even 40-60 kWh modular ones. Car battery needs forklift and every model has different interface. Economically sourcing used cells to build batteries also makes no sense. So either recycling or repair to continue using it as car battery.