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I thought the typical landfill in the US is willing to accept lithium batteries, but putting a Tesla battery pack in a landfill is economically dumb compared to
by jnw2 13y ago
I thought the typical landfill in the US is willing to accept lithium batteries, but putting a Tesla battery pack in a landfill is economically dumb compared to selling the used pack to someone interested in recycling the raw materials in the pack.
- ChuckMcM 13y agoI should check but I believe that Tesla buys back the old batteries for just that purpose (to recycle them). Not unlike going to the auto parts store with your old alternator and getting a rebuilt one to replace it. No doubt there will be 'rebuilt' battery packs for folks on a budget.
- jnw2 13y agoElon commented, I think in the Foundations 20 video on Youtube, that the raw metals that go into a battery pack cost about $80/kwh. That means that putting the battery pack from an 85 kwh Model S in a landfill is equivalent to putting a stack of over 300 $20 bills in a landfill. (He was actually trying to make a point about how cheap battery packs might be to buy new in the future, with more efficient techniques for turning the raw materials into battery packs.)