[External] Re: 10g residential CPE

Mon Dec 28 03:29:27 UTC 2020

On 12/27/20 5:26 AM, Mark Tinka wrote:
> I'm just not sure where all that Li-Ion will go after 15 - 20 years of 
> use, though...
> 
> One European manufacturer (the one whose battery I bought) says that as 
> of now, they can only recycle 20% of each battery they sell. To me, that 
> sounds like just the metal case enclosure, and the plastic facia.
> 
> Ah well, maybe disposal tech. for Li-Ion storage will have improved by 2040. 

Interestingly, the Lithium content is the, in theory, valuable part of 
it. There's not actually much Li in a typical Li-Ion rechargeable 
battery (much less than a Li metal primary cell), but my understanding 
is that it's enough to have people interested considering that we're 
already basically consuming the world's Lithium supply just about as 
fast as we can economically mine and refine it.  However, that may 
account for the apparently low recyleable content of a given battery. 
By mass and volume, it's mostly electrodes, which are common metals, and 
paper separator which is worthless.

I would imagine that, as "dead" Li-Ion cells become more available and 
demand presumably continues to rise (absent a better battery tech), 
folks will get more serious about recycling the electrolyte.
-- 
Brandon Martin