Audi, Redwood Supplies launch recycling program for shopper electronics • TechCrunch

Audi and battery recycler Redwood Supplies are teaming as much as gather end-of-life batteries from cell telephones, electrical toothbrushes and different lithium-ion-powered gadgets at taking part dealerships nationwide.

Starting November, customers can deposit their laptops, cell telephones, e-bikes, e-scooters, electrical toothbrushes, vacuum cleaners, energy drills and different rechargeable gadgets on the dealerships. The recycling bins might be out there for the “foreseeable future in choose dealerships,” a spokeswoman stated.

This system, which expands upon Redwood’s partnership to recycle Audi and Volkswagen EV batteries, marks the primary time the Nevada-based recycler has labored with an automaker to gather family lithium-ion batteries. The batteries and gadgets collected within the bins might be despatched to Redwood’s facility to be repurposed as sustainable, home EV batteries.

As the most important participant within the burgeoning battery recycling trade, Redwood has a chance to resolve a uncooked supplies scarcity that threatens to undercut automakers’ aggressive world EV gross sales targets. Making a sustainable, closed-loop home battery provide chain can provide the hundreds of thousands of recent EVs slated to hit the street over the following few years whereas assembly tips for incentives below the Inflation Discount Act. The invoice supplies tax credit for EVs whose batteries are constructed with recycled content material.

About 15 million tons of lithium-ion batteries are anticipated to retire by 2030, the deadline most automakers have set for phasing out gas-engine autos, in keeping with AquaMetals. Redwood initiatives world demand for lithium-ion batteries to rise sixfold, or by greater than 500%, over the following decade.