A circular economy in the mind of a philosopher could be an ideal world in which we use everything over and over again. A kitchen garden could work that way if we recycled the peelings and leftovers as fertilizer. That’s all fine and dandy in principle. But how could a circular battery economy work in practice, is it possible to achieve this goal do you think?
Reusing Batteries In a Circular Economy
Some 95% of our lead-acid battery materials recycle, thanks to a design that is easy to dismantle. This is a happy, albeit unintended coincidence, although we strongly recommend you don’t try taking a lead-acid battery apart yourself. We wish we could say the same for lithium-ion batteries, but at least we have learned one lesson from that. Batteries would need to be made to recycle, if we genuinely wanted a circular economy. For this to be possible:
- Battery materials would have to be suitable for repurposing endlessly in a circular economy.
- This should take the entire value chain into account, from the mine through to recycling.
- The process should be morally responsible too, including impact on employees and nature.
However, that’s not the full answer yet, as to how a circular battery economy could work in practice. The batteries should not only be manufactured efficiently. They should also need the least possible energy to recharge them, and deliver bounteous energy in return.
How These Ideas Could Work in Practice
It is time that we asked a deeper question in our search for sustainable batteries. How could a circular battery economy be genuine, if it functioned in a vacuum? Would it make sense if a battery powered an unsustainable vehicle that left a trail of industrial pollution behind? If the object is to recycle electric vehicle batteries in a vacuum like that, then we would still be far from our goal of an infinitely sustainable world. All the other materials in the vehicle should therefore be part of the circular economy too, and the roads we drive on as well. For if these other things were not the case, then surely our circular battery economy would be an end unto itself? More Information Recycling Lead Batteries in a Circular Economy Old Electric Auto Batteries Deliver More Power Preview Image: Circular Economy in Action
