Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023
Is a battery recycling ‘dump’ operating in Nevada?
There is no battery dump currently operating in or proposed in Nevada, although battery recycling plants will be built in the state.
Redwood Materials and Aqua Metals are new Northern Nevada companies in the emerging lithium-ion battery recycling industry.
Redwood Materials plans to recycle costly metals from recycled batteries and, by 2030, produce new batteries for five million vehicles. Until enough batteries are ready for recycling, Redwood will augment recycled material with mined metals.
Aqua Metals expects to annually process more than 20 million pounds of recycled lithium-ion battery material, enough for 100,000 new electric vehicle battery packs. Their new process avoids pollution and recovers all the critical resources in spent lithium-ion batteries, primarily by using electricity.
Nevada is the only state with companies involved in every facet of the lithium-ion battery supply chain: mining, manufacturing and recycling.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Redwood Materials Redwood’s plan to produce sustainable battery materials
- Aqua Metals, Inc. Aqua Metals Selects Tahoe-Reno for Commercial Lithium Battery Recycling Campus
- Aqua Metals, Inc. Aqua Metals’ Breakthrough Li AquaRefining
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