WRA Mini Pod: EV Battery Recycling

If you're listening to this podcast, I'm willing to bet you are looking for solutions to climate change and pollution in the West. 

You probably already recycle, reuse grocery bags, avoid single-use plastic, and maybe drive an EV to minimize your environmental impact. 

Reducing our dependence on polluting practices is a good first step in caring for the environment. 

Similarly, the transition to zero emission vehicles is a key strategy to fight back against climate change.  

Countless studies have proven that over the life cycle of the vehicle, EVs greatly reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and they allow us to build a cleaner, more affordable, and more resilient economy. 

But did you know that there's a way to make this sustainable technology even better for the West? 

We can do this by ensuring EV batteries have a second life.  

Unlike a traditional vehicle, the battery that powers an EV can be reused or repurposed once the vehicle itself reaches the end of its life.   

And in an instance where a battery can’t be reused or repurposed, we can recover the critical minerals within - rare earth minerals like lithium or cobalt – which can be recycled almost indefinitely. 

And even better - WRA is working within our region to advance forward thinking policies to make EV battery second life applications as effective, economical, and efficient as possible. 

On today's shorter episode of 2° Out West, learn all about the circular EV battery economy and what it could mean for the future of the West. 

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:23 Deborah Intro
• 3:24 How Long Do EV Batteries Last?
• 5:20 What Happens to EV Batteries Now?
• 6:25 What a Circular Economy Is
• 9:19 How Recyclable Are Critical Minerals?
• 10:50 The Benefits to the West
• 17:11 What Is Next?
• 17:53 Outro

Transcript

[00:00:00] Dave (Host): Hi, friends cold open today. It's Dave, your host. I wanted to pop in before this episode and say that we're trying something a little new today. Today's episode will be what we're calling A WRA Mini Pod. It'll be less of a detailed explanation on a more complex topic and more of a quick 1 0 1 to keep you in the loop.

[00:00:18] Perfect for whenever you have free time throughout the day. We wanna bring you more information in a digestible format about the most relevant issues we're dealing with in the West, and this is one way to do that. So hopefully you enjoy, and if you do, please do let us know at our email outreach@westernresources.org.

[00:00:35] Enjoy today's episode on electric vehicle battery recycling.

[00:00:50] If you're listening to this podcast, I'm willing to bet you are looking for solutions to climate change and pollution in the West. You probably already recycle, reuse grocery bags and [00:01:00] avoid single use plastic, and maybe you even drive an EV to minimize your environmental impact. Reducing our dependence on polluting practices is a great first step for caring for the environment.

[00:01:10] Similarly, the transition to zero emission vehicles is a key strategy to fight back against climate change. Countless studies have proven that over the lifecycle of the vehicle, EVs greatly reduce pollution in greenhouse gas emissions. And they allow us to build a cleaner, more affordable and more resilient economy.

[00:01:27] But did you know that there's a way to make this sustainable technology even better for the West? We can do this by ensuring EV batteries have a second life. Unlike our traditional vehicle, the battery that powers an EV can be reused or repurposed. Once the vehicle reaches the end of its life and an instance where a battery can't be reused or repurposed, we can recover the critical minerals within rare earth minerals like lithium or cobalt.

[00:01:53] Which can then be recycled almost indefinitely and even better. WRA is working within our region to advance [00:02:00] forward-thinking policies to make EV battery second life applications as effective, economical, and efficient as possible. I got a chance to chat with one of W's policy experts who is helping to lead this initiative on today's shorter episode of Two Degrees Out West.

[00:02:15] Learn all about the circular EV battery economy and what it could mean for the future of the West.

[00:02:26] Deborah: My name is Deborah Kapiloff and I am a transportation electrification policy advisor at Western Resource Advocates. 

[00:02:35] Dave (Host): Deborah works for WRA to advance clean transportation goals in the West. She pays a lot of attention to EVs and how they can reshape our economic dependence on carbon. 

[00:02:46] Deborah: And so my role is to advocate for policies to help decarbonize the transportation sector with a focus on the electrification of light, [00:03:00] medium, and heavy duty vehicles.

[00:03:02] What that means in my day-to-day work is that I. In venues like state legislatures, public utilities, commissions, and air regulatory boards and agencies to shape and advocate for those policies. 

[00:03:20] Dave (Host): The first thing I wanted to understand better about EV batteries is just how long they last. Deborah explained.

[00:03:26] Deborah: I think a lot of people think of them as like your 12 volt car battery, where like maybe one day it's really cold and you try to start your car and that battery is just dead and you're like, oh no, okay, well it's time to take this battery out. , an EV battery is extremely different in that it generally will.

[00:03:44] Outlast the lifetime of the actual vehicle or how long you own that vehicle. , there's some slight degradation of the battery that happens the more you drive it. And that's dependent on a lot of things like the temperature you're storing the vehicle in, , kind of the use [00:04:00] cycles of your vehicle. , the recharge, , and discharge cycles and how you're charging it.

[00:04:05] , but generally like there's a degradation curve for lithium ion batteries. And so they'll degrade slightly generally around five. They'll lose 5% of their capacity after around 50,000 miles. And then. Around 10% of their capacity will be lost after 150 to 200,000 miles. So like my electric vehicle has a range of 272 miles.

[00:04:32] That's the EPA range. And so if I were to drive it 200,000 miles, um, I would probably have a range that is 90% of that original range figure. Again, depending on a lot of factors. 

[00:04:46] Dave (Host): It works less like the batteries in your mouse or remote and more like the battery in your smartphone because of this. She said that right now there's not a lot of dead or degraded EV batteries in the system, 

[00:04:57] Deborah: so we're really not seeing a large number [00:05:00] of these batteries that are coming out of cars right now.

[00:05:03] But we know that down the road in a couple of years and decades, as earlier, EV models are starting to retire or have batteries that have degraded to the extent where replacement batteries are needed for that vehicle. We will be seeing that. 

[00:05:21] Dave (Host): So what happens to old EV batteries now? 

[00:05:25] Deborah: Right now it really depends like.

[00:05:29] Technically in federal law, lithium ion batteries are categorized as hazardous waste. And so there are regulations about how they should be handled, , and how they should be transported and disposed if it comes to that. The guidance on the federal level is kind of unclear about whether. This lithium ion battery regulation applies to EV batteries.

[00:05:53] , it really was promulgated for like small and medium format lithium ion batteries. So like the [00:06:00] stuff that powers like your household electronics. Um, and obviously like in EV battery is a huge battery. It weighs thousands of pounds and so. The, the needed policy framework for those batteries is very different than from like household appliances and electronics that are battery powered.

[00:06:20] And so that's one of the reasons it's so important to be putting this policy into place at the state level because we have not seen the necessary guidance at the federal level. 

[00:06:32] Dave (Host): The new policies Deborah is working on are proactive and could usher in some exciting economic opportunities. Deborah said that ev battery recycling presents an opportunity for something called a circular economy.

[00:06:45] Deborah: A circular economy is really just a system in which when a product is created at the end of that product's life, the materials from that product are recovered and then reused [00:07:00] to make either that product again or another product. So instead of. A product at the end of its life going to a landfill. And then the materials that were used to make that product having kind of the end of their life be in a landfill where they slowly decompose, uh, or maybe don't decompose.

[00:07:20] They're actually being recovered and then used again. And so when you draw out what that looks like, you get a circle. 

[00:07:29] Dave (Host): She elaborated on some of the benefits of that circular economy. 

[00:07:32] Deborah: You are generating less waste. , we obviously know that land filling is something that can have negative environmental impacts, as well as landfills can be a really potent source of methane gas, which we don't want being released into the atmosphere.

[00:07:49] When you recover resources and reuse them, first of all, the steps to do that can create. Economic opportunity and jobs, [00:08:00] especially in those communities where the resources are being recovered from. Also, when you eventually reuse those materials in either the same or another product, the environmental impact of those resources, that, and materials that you're reusing is significantly lower because they haven't had to be.

[00:08:22] , extracted newly, , or fabricated. Again, 

[00:08:26] Dave (Host): this is all great and fairly intuitive. It's a message that we've heard since middle school, reduce, reuse and recycle. How does this impact EV batteries? 

[00:08:35] Deborah: What it means is that there batteries are going to be coming out of those vehicles, and then if there is policy in place, those batteries can go on to have.

[00:08:47] Really great second lives either being used in other mobility applications or being used in other applications. Like energy storage [00:09:00] or potentially if they're not of the correct quality for those second life applications, those EV batteries can be recycled to make either new EV batteries or other products that utilize the same critical minerals that are recovered from those EV batteries.

[00:09:19] Dave (Host): EV batteries are great candidates for recycling. Deborah explained just how recyclable the critical minerals within the battery can be.

[00:09:30] Deborah: Some of the higher end, , more technologically capable recycling processes can recover upwards of 90% of the critical minerals in a battery. And obviously that varies on the exact critical mineral and also the condition of the battery when they get it. But it's a very high percentage of critical minerals that can be extracted from an EV battery if high quality recycling processes are [00:10:00] used.

[00:10:00] And so I think those recovery rates are really, really exciting, especially when you think about the fact that technology is getting. More and more efficient and progressing so that we potentially need less of these minerals in future EV batteries. Being able to recover so many of those minerals can really put a dent in the need for new resource extraction to supply those materials.

[00:10:25] Dave (Host): It's been estimated that if all EV batteries are recycled between now and 2050 and the critical minerals are reused, it could reduce the need for mining by up to 64%. Recycling these materials over and over can ease our reliance on foreign powers for minerals. Many of the benefits Debra explained to me come from that circular economy concept that she relayed earlier.

[00:10:48] Deborah: The benefits are obviously, , having those circular economies set up so that. Creates jobs, , generally domestically. , [00:11:00] so you have the folks that are retrieving these batteries and then working in the battery recycling facilities and breaking them down and extracting the materials from them, and then potentially also refining those materials if needed so that they are usable again, those are all.

[00:11:19] Job opportunities and those are tend to be high quality family supporting jobs. Beyond that, having a stable supply of these critical minerals. Um, especially when so much of the sourcing for them comes from areas of the world that can be a little bit volatile. , or, you know, if you're thinking about like permitting a new mine, that can be a very extensive and expensive process.

[00:11:47] , so having a supply of these minerals, I kind of refer to them as like secondhand or like thrifted minerals is something that can give a lot of confidence to auto manufacturers. That they will have a supply of these things that are [00:12:00] needed to make EV batteries. 

[00:12:03] Dave (Host): Deborah told me it's very forward thinking.

[00:12:06] She says WRA is leading the way on ED battery recycling in the west. 

[00:12:12] Deborah: I think what's really exciting about the legislative efforts that we're working on in some of RA's states is that they really set up a framework that indicates to. Recyclers and all of the industry players in the EV battery recycling space, that this is something that is wanted and really gives them that economic certainty that when EV batteries reach the end of their life, they will be going to recyclers, , or to other reuse or remanufacturing applications if they're in good enough shape for that.

[00:12:47] And so that's really exciting because we want to get all those facilities set up and ensure that there's enough capacity for the coming number of EV [00:13:00] batteries that will come offline in the next couple of years and decades. 

[00:13:06] Dave (Host): This policy Debra is working on to advance has fought a lot about potential hangups with EV batteries and how we can overcome them.

[00:13:13] She explained some of the challenges the legislation would overcome.

[00:13:21] Deborah: I think something that is challenging, uh, with this policy is just the amount of coordination that's needed between all of the parties that are involved, as well as all the different interests of those parties. So, for example. Generally, like if you're having a problem with your car, you'll probably drive it to a dealership or an independent auto mechanic and see if they can help you.

[00:13:45] And let's say that they determine that your EV battery has reached the end of its life and they're gonna remove it. They might not have. The expertise to be able to properly handle that battery much [00:14:00] less to determine whether they can sell that battery for reuse or if it needs to be sent to recycling.

[00:14:06] And so we really want to avoid any situation where someone has removed an EV battery and just doesn't know what to do with it, or might improperly dispose of it. So the policy framework that we've been working on and supporting in our states establishes kind of a chain of command for who is responsible for an EV battery to ensure that none of them are slipping through the cracks and anytime.

[00:14:33] There is like an auto mechanic who is like, oh, I took this EV battery out and I don't know what to do with it. Now they know exactly who to call and that person is responsible for coordinating with them and ensuring that that EV battery is appropriately handled and gets to a place where it can be recycled.

[00:14:52] It's a policy that can be implemented across multiple states, and it honestly makes a lot of sense to [00:15:00] have, um, a common framework that multiple states adopt just because when you're dealing with like auto manufacturers and like the Auto Recycling Association, I. And some of these players that do have footprints that are multi-state or national, they really want policy consistency and a policy that makes sense and that can be implemented broadly.

[00:15:22] And given the lack of guidance and movement on this topic at the federal level, this is something that WA has been leading on in our states, we are working on legislation. With the same, uh, policy framework in New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado. And something that's been very exciting is that our draft legislative text, um, has been picked up as a model in states outside of our region.

[00:15:52] Uh, so I was actually recently notified that there is a group, uh, working in Washington State. Are [00:16:00] using the framework that WR is working on in our states. And so this is, I think, a really great opportunity for states in the absence of strong leadership at the federal level to put into place important policies.

[00:16:14] Um, and there's a real synergy between multiple states putting in the same policy, um, in the next couple of years.

[00:16:25] There are just a lot of different parties in this space that all have slightly different interests, and so when you can harmonize those to get to a policy solution that works for everyone after months and months of conversations and going back and forth with red lines on exact language. That's something that other states are very interested in, um, working off of.

[00:16:49] So it's really nice to see all the meticulous, uh, stake holding and drafting work that we've been doing, be able to have a life outside of, [00:17:00] of various states as well. 

[00:17:02] Dave (Host): So what's next? Well, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico could all pass EV battery legislation this session. 

[00:17:11] Deborah: Um, in New Mexico, a bill house Bill three 10 sponsored by representative Christina Ortez has been introduced.

[00:17:19] And then in Colorado and Nevada, the session timelines are a bit different. Um, and so we are expecting those bills to be introduced, uh, in early to mid-March. And then once they're introduced, uh, we can. Attach bill numbers to them and let WRA supporters know if they wanna monitor those bills.

[00:17:47] Dave (Host): EV Battery Second Life applications presents some exciting opportunities for how we could build a clean energy economy that's forward thinking and makes the West a better place to live. It's an opportunity to learn from the past and build a better future.[00:18:00] 

[00:18:02] If you want to learn more about what W is doing in state legislatures and our efforts to advance forward thinking policies that protect the West. You can join our email list. We'll provide opportunities for you to take action and updates on how our bills like these ones in New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado are doing.

[00:18:20] Thank you for listening to this shorter edition of Few Degrees Out West. If you enjoyed it, let us know by emailing us at outreach@westernresources.org.

[00:18:34] You can find all of our show notes, a full transcription of this episode and further resources to learn about EV battery recycling in the west. At Western resource advocates.org. Lastly, WRA would like to thank our sponsors who make this work possible. Our impact sponsor is First Bank. Our premier sponsor is Vision Ridge Partners.

[00:18:54] Our supporting sponsors are BSW Wealth Partners, GOCO Group 14, engineering Jones and [00:19:00] Co. Meridian Public Affairs and Sola. Thank you for listening.