Batteries are a critical part of the transition away from fossil fuels. From electric vehicles to grid scale storage for wind and solar, demand for batteries is expected to grow 500% by 2030. In order to meet that demand, we’re going to need a lot more batteries. JB Starubel, Founder and CEO of Redwood Materials (and former Chief Technology Officer at Tesla), says, “I don't see how we make the world sustainable without storage. And right now, batteries, lithium ion batteries largely are the scalable economic solution.” 

Creating a circular battery production process where the materials from decommissioned batteries are recycled to create new batteries would be the most sustainable way to meet our energy storage needs. That’s what Straubel and Redwood Materials are trying to achieve. Straubel says, “we can imagine this future where you don't need to continually extract and supply some chemical into a whole fleet of cars. The batteries today might be economically 95% but technically they’re 99% or more reusable.” 

While a high percentage of batteries are reusable, recycling them is not an easy process. That’s part of the reason why 95% of lithium-ion batteries end up in landfill. In order to recycle a battery, it has to be neutralized in order to prevent fires, and then each of the critical metals has to be purified and separated from each other. Straubel says, “It is a lot harder than notionally taking an old beer can and melting it and then stamping it into a new beer can. Batteries are a kind of a complex mixture of chemistry and chemicals all together. “ 

Some companies are working on new battery chemistries whose materials wouldn’t be as scarce or difficult to obtain. But at the moment, an alternative to lithium-ion batteries doesn’t exist at scale. Straubel says, “The process to mature a battery and to really make sure it's robust and get it to scale is very, very long. So, I learn to take new battery announcements with a little bit of a grain of salt.” 

Until there are enough old batteries being recycled, the critical minerals will still need to be mined. To meet growing demand, lithium mines around the world are opening or expanding, and in the Congo, children as young as six carry sacks of cobalt-laced rocks on their backs. And whether it happens in the U.S. or abroad, there are major environmental impacts from removing those minerals from the earth. 

Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director at the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, says, “There is not a country in the world with laws sufficient to prevent significant harm where mining happens.” 

But that doesn’t mean mining can’t be done more responsibly. The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, or IRMA, is working to create high standards that hold mining operations accountable. Despite IRMA being started 16 years ago, only 3 mining companies have released audits scoring their adherence to the IRMA standard so far. But as industry giants like BMW, Mercedes, Ford, GM, Tesla, Rivian and Volkswagen have become members, there is more leverage to get transparency from the mining industry. 

The good news is that there doesn’t need to be new innovation to reduce harm in the mining industry, as Boulanger says, “We don't need 20 years of research and technology to get at best practice mining. This is not nuclear fusion. We absolutely know already how to do mining with less harm.”

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