[zaroth]

A chokehold on new mining of a crucial ore for renewables sounds like a terrible overall idea.

The lifecycle of the lithium that will come from this hypothetical mine is probably 20 years from now until the first time the material will be recycled.

The highly profitable recycling logistics will have been fully worked out a decade before it’s needed for a new mine’s output.

[iancmceachern]

This is reducto ad absurdum. I'm not proposing that.

I'm proposing we put equal effort into both. My expectation is that we don't currently.

75% of all aluminum ever made is still in use. We should be able to do that with lithium too.

[zaroth]

I was responding to when you said “before we make any more big, environmentally hazardous mines”.

The recycling effort is highly profitable, there’s little need to subsidize it. It will simply grow and consume all available supply.

Large scale lithium battery storage is still truly just getting started. We need to be super smart with lining up supply for essential inputs for growth.

[iancmceachern]

Then why hasn't it been keeping up? It seems that lithium recycling is way behind exploration and mining. Why? It's highly profitable as you say, are there technology limitations?

[Sabinus]

There isn't enough material yet for a large robust recycling industry, and collection of small batteries is still an issue.