The old mobile phone batteries you toss away casually and the retired power batteries from new energy vehicles are not useless garbage, but urban mines containing strategic resources such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. These so-called "spent lithium batteries", which will enter the recycling sequence once their capacity fades to the point of failing to meet original application needs, cover a variety of categories including consumer electronics batteries, power batteries and energy storage batteries.
Their value lies in dual rebirth: Batteries in relatively good condition can be reused in energy storage power stations and communication base station backup power supplies through echelon utilization, extending their service life by another 3–5 years. Those completely retired will have metals extracted through professional technologies, with the recovery rate of lithium, nickel and cobalt from formal recycling reaching over 95%. It is worth noting that each ton of ternary lithium batteries can yield 15 kg of lithium and 200 kg of nickel, and these resources can be reused to manufacture new batteries, reducing the exploitation of primary minerals.
More importantly, standardized recycling can avoid environmental risks. If spent lithium batteries are discarded at will or incinerated and leached with acid by small workshops, the electrolyte and heavy metals inside will contaminate soil and water sources, and even cause fires. In contrast, recycling through formal channels can not only uphold the ecological bottom line, but also contribute to energy security, thus realizing true green recycling.
