Can you recycle an old EV battery?

Published at : 23 Dec 2025

Lithium-ion batteries have enabled us to build electric cars that let us drive around without burning fossil fuels. But how green are these batteries actually? And where do they end up once they're spent?

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What can we do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

#PlanetA #Battery #Recycling
  
Read More (Links):

Electric vehicle market:
https://about.bnef.com/electric-vehicle-outlook/

Lithium criticality:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18402-y.pdf

Working conditions in Cobalt mines:
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---ilo-manila/documents/publication/wcms_720743.pdf

Lithium-Ion Vehicle Battery Production:
https://www.ivl.se/download/18.34244ba71728fcb3f3faf9/1591706083170/C444.pdf

Lithium-ion battery recycling market (excerpt of full report):
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/587657ddbe659497fb46664c/t/5fdaa991dc2ddb6396c30fa6/1608165783527/The+lithium-ion+battery+life+cycle+report+sample.pdf

More on the Nobel Prize winners:
https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2019/10/popular-chemistryprize2019.pdf

Reporter: Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann  
Video editor: Johanna Rath
Supervising editor: Joanna Gottschalk