Quote:
Originally Posted by jmedia
What about the creation and mining involved in making the batteries? I've heard that is a harsh process using loads of petrol.
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Lead acid batteries tend be recycled in to new lead acid batteries with very little waste, close to 99% of an old lead acid battery is turned in to a new lead acid battery, so its just re-refining.
Lithium batteries tend to have the highest environmental impact from the copper and aluminum that goes in to them, the aluminum is so thin that you loose most of it when you recycle them (aluminum foil has little to no scrap value as it turns to oxide when you melt it) but you get almost all of the copper back, if I remember correctly it was around 70% of the metal going in to a lithium battery is gotten back, I don't remember how much lithium is returned, I think it was 30-40%, but there wasn't much lithium to start with and like I said, the other metals have the larger environmental impact, at least this is according to the presentation on manufacturing and recycling of lithium batteries, this is all from memory so please check my information before writing your paper.