Another tid-bit to mull over is what happens to the used batteries. Recycle is what experts say, but, even they admit the technology is at least 10 to 15 years down the road, and that's a maybe. So, let's look at real world problems... today.
Even now, some Tesla batteries (produced since 2008) have reached the end of their life. So, what happens to all these batteries?
In its 2020 impact report, published Wednesday, the electric vehicle giant described its adoption of a “closed-loop” process that would allow it to keep 100 percent of its batteries, which typically last around a decade, out of the landfill: “None of our scrapped lithium-ion batteries go to landfills and 100 percent are recycled,” the report reads. “We actively implement circular economy principles.”
This claim was quickly recirculated by tech and electric vehicle blogs, which lauded the company for this feat.
However, Tesla is Working with third-party recyclers and that means Tesla doesn’t retain much control over what happens to the minerals in their batteries once they’re sent to a recycler. Its environmental impact report also does not claim the company is making batteries out of recycled minerals yet. (Jan 30, 2022).
Therefore, many of the massive used batteries (the Tesla version weighs about 900 pounds) appear to be stockpiled in hopes of greater reuse and recycling markets. But eventually those batteries, along with the toxic chemicals that can leach out of them, could end up in hazardous waste landfills.