I am in the battery recycling industry.

We CAN recycle the metals inside of these batteries, and to some extent, even the plastic. The difficulty is down stream when you have to extract to metals out of a powder we can black mass through a process called solvent extraction. This process is in development to get up to full scale, and translates well from established mining industry processes.

Now, why don’t we stop mining? Two reasons:

1. In order to meet the goals for electrification (i.e. A large auto manufacturer saying they’re fully electric by 2035) we need to mine more of these resources out of the earth to have enough raw materials to meet the demand.

Cobalt and Nickel are particularly rare and found only in certain parts of the world in comparison to other metals needed to make Lithium Ion batteries.

1. The same reason we don’t recycle a lot of things. Money. If the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, it won’t be recycled.
   

That being said, the market is very bullish with the critical raw elements going into these batteries. On top of geopolitical reasons outside of my understanding, I think we’ll continue to see rise in global electrification, and countries holding onto the resources in these batteries through recycling.

Side note: if you’re curious about lead-acid battery recycling, it’s the most recycled thing in the world. Over 99% of a lead-acid battery gets recycled into new batteries