Redwood materials will recycle lime batteries, as China blocks the main minerals

Lime is it Partnership With Redwood materials to recycle batteries from their fleet of bicycles and joint electrical bicycles. Redwood was founded in 2007 by JB Straubel, co -founder of Tesla and a close associate of the CEO Elon Musk, with the aim of addressing the expected expected demand for the necessary materials to produce electric car batteries.

As part of the deal, Lime will send batteries that have reached the end of their lives to the Redwood facilities in Nevada, where the amount of the battery – from cables to plastic and metal – will be used – it can be reused. The batteries in bicycles and motorbikes usually continue from five to seven years or 500 charging cycles, according to Almery.

Although the common movement is The cemetery of failed companiesLime has survived, and now runs the largest fleet in the world of joint Micromobility with more than 270,000 cars in 30 countries. Many companies failed in space because motorcycles have quickly collapsed, and a fleet of party workers to collect and ship vehicles was expensive. It is rumored to be lime Public subscription After publishing 30 % growth in reservations for 2024.

For lemon, the deal with Redwood has a great meaning. For years, companies have marketed themselves as a more efficient and environmentally friendly means of transferring than others, such as private passenger vehicles. However, these allegations were somewhat undermined by the images that spread on the Internet of motorcycles scattered in the streets and end in rivers. Lim says he agreed to an agreement because he admired the high Redwood recovery rate. The company says that once the batteries are stripped of relevant items, they are then used to produce new “high -quality” batteries that can be combined in everything from cars to phones. Since these new batteries are of higher quality, they can be recovered in turn and returned to the supply chain of 95-98 % of the time, according to the Redwood claim.

The batteries often represent the largest cost in an electric car – some reports indicate that they represent More than 40 % From buyer price – materials are usually obtained from countries including China, which is the largest source in the world for rare ground minerals used in electric cars. During the weekend, China announced that it would work Restricting the export of some rare ground minerals In response to President Trump’s tariff by 125 % on most of the country’s exports.

If the United States wants to reduce dependence on the opponents of the security products of national security, the ability to recycle minerals and expand its useful life is the beginning. President Trump sought to increase mineral mining in the United States (and pressure on Ukraine Delivery of mining rights Within its borders to pay the costs of the war), but it is expected to take this for many years, and there are no main elements in large deposits within the United States. If the United States is only able to source of minerals from smaller deposit areas, the ability to recycle everything can reduce the deficiency.

Redwood claims that in 2024, it managed to recycle enough materials from old cars, motorcycles and other products to produce a few EV batteries. “We have only recycled 20 gigawatts of materials in 2024,” said a spokesman for Drilling. “This is sufficient to produce another 250,000 EVS. It has spread through GigaFACTORIES scrap to the electronic devices of small consumers, medium formats such bikes and motorcycles, then large EV packages and storage storage.”

The home recycling of materials such as plastic has never succeeded in the way that was hoping because virgin plastic is incredibly cheap, and the plastic recycling is difficult and complex. Consumers may say that they are interested in buying products that use recycled materials, but at the end of the day, they are aware of the store in the store and will choose the best value for the dollar. Electric cars are a little more expensive and the value of the minerals in the EV battery can Compensation for the cost of the recycling process. In addition to addressing the decisive need for rare Earth metals, this would also help in treating critics who say that the batteries inside electric cars undermine their environmental sustainability (studies found that EVS is still producing Less life emissions From combustion engine cars, even when calculating metal extraction).