Creating a product based on repurposing materials is hard but essential to reduce our reliance on critical minerals. We spoke to Anya Bramich, our Head of Marketing, about our work with second life batteries and why it deserves the recognition.
Even in today’s throwaway society, with overconsumption and excessive production of disposable items, most of us would agree that disposing of something that still had 75% of its life left in it would be an enormous waste.
“So why should electric vehicle batteries be any different?” Anya, says “Every year tens of thousands of EV batteries will be retired from vehicles when their capacity drops to around 75%. Its life in a vehicle may have come to an end however they still hold a significant amount of capacity – one that can be used for other purposes.”
In a recent blog, we discussed the move towards a more circular economy approach which places the emphasis on extending a product’s life before it moves to recycling. And where recycling has a critical role to play in the life cycle of a battery, this is a stage which should come at the very end of the cycle. Putting repurposing before recycling brings about a new level of environmental and economic benefits.
Anya continues: “But repurposing is often the hardest thing to do. Taking a product that has specifically been designed for its first life application and attempting to optimise it for a second application requires innovative thinking and is not without its technical challenges.
“However, approaching resource management differently is a critical component in our approach to climate change and that is exactly why it is so important and why it deserves recognition.”
