r/science • u/Sort_of_Frightening • Sep 10 '23

Chemistry Lithium discovery in U.S. volcano could be biggest deposit ever found

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/lithium-discovery-in-us-volcano-could-be-biggest-deposit-ever-found/4018032.article
17.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '23

I think the question is what happens when todays batteries fail. Do they end up in a landfill? Or do we have the technology to efficiently reclaim that lithium?

I think that’s the critical thing…not that we’ve “solved” batteries.

1

u/Rave-TZ Sep 11 '23

Lithium batteries are 95% recyclable with zero degradation. It’s pretty amazing really. The EU is looking for ways to trace lithium batteries to keep them from being exported because of how valuable it can be to recycle them.