Battery recycling provides economic, national security, and environmental benefits. But the United States is playing catch-up to Asian countries, particularly China.
Half as many child laborers digging up cobalt in this world countries is a good start, I guess… But this does nothing to solve the root cause it the problem.
Who’s to say when they lose their jobs at the cobalt mines they don’t move onto something even more dangerous?
Also this assumes some sort of growth plateau. We could recycle and continue to extract at the same rate pretty easily due to growth.
Solving child labor by recycling batteries is like trying to solve global warming with carbon capture. At best you’re just ignoring the cause. At worst you’re enabling the worst offenders by providing a smokescreen for them to hide behind.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Reducing the need for batteries can help too. Cycling or taking the bus is better than getting an EV.