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

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

Starting November, shoppers 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 can be obtainable 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 can be despatched to Redwood’s facility to be repurposed as sustainable, home EV batteries.

As the most important participant within the burgeoning battery recycling business, 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 tens of millions of latest EVs slated to hit the street over the subsequent few years whereas assembly tips for incentives below the Inflation Discount Act. The invoice gives 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 automobiles, based on AquaMetals. Redwood tasks world demand for lithium-ion batteries to rise sixfold, or by greater than 500%, over the subsequent decade.