The lithium-ion batteries in today’s electric vehicles outperform older lead-acid batteries by almost every measure, except one. Lead-acid batteries are still the single-most recycled product in the world.
Although lithium-ion batteries are set to power a clean-energy transition, more than 100 million lead-acid batteries are still sold each year in the United States, mostly as starter batteries for cars, trucks, and boats.
When those lead-acid batteries die, nearly all of them get recycled. In fact, the lead-acid battery industry claims a domestic recycling rate of 99 percent. In 2021, the U.S. produced nearly one million metric tons of recycled lead. Almost all of that recycled lead was used to manufacture new batteries.
What is interesting is that none of this is actually new. Lead-acid batteries have been recycled since the 1920s. As early as 1930, the industry described…
Recycling Lead-Acid Batteries Is Easy. Why Is Recycling Lithium-ion Batteries Hard?
