The future of energy starts with rebuilding the battery | Hard Reset

Millions of tons of batteries are headed to landfills. Here’s the plan to save them.

Batteries don't last forever, including rechargeable ones. When batteries finally die, they need to be recycled. However, because so many different technologies rely on them, we currently need to recycle about 500,000 tons of batteries every year.

When batteries are recycled, they are shredded and melted — and literally turned back into their constituent atomic elements. The batteries are then rebuilt, essentially from scratch.

A company called ReCell is trying to improve this process with a method called "direct recycling," which maintains the structural integrity of a part of the battery called the cathode. This should make battery recycling more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

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Read more of our stories on battery recycling:
► Will battery recycling be ready when all these new EV batteries die?
► Alternative batteries are solving the biggest problem in renewable energy
► Batteries of the future could be made from trees
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Watch our original series:

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About Freethink
No politics, no gossip, no cynics. At Freethink, we believe the daily news should inspire people to build a better world. While most media is fueled by toxic politics and negativity, we focus on solutions: the smartest people, the biggest ideas, and the most ground breaking technology shaping our future.
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Enjoy Freethink on your favorite platforms:

[freethink]

How do you think we'll use batteries in the future?

[Frenchiezy]

Honestly, thinking of Earth as one gaint spaceship that we all share is such a beautiful perspective

[tomern]

We already do this in Norway, use our EVs to provide electricity to the grid. Not a standard solution, but it's growing 👌

[The_Cyber_System]

The order of operations is reduce, reuse, recycle, but we do need the infrastructure to support all three. We've been keeping up on the news with battery recycling for a while and great to see a video from freethink's perspective.

Also, we do live on a real real big spaceship, but don't forget that it's also very fragile, a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam

[obes]

So many options out there for Batteries im excited

[chelsey]

Wow, so incredible. I love every update to this channel. It's so heartwarming, encouraging and inspiring.

[abhisoni]

How do they recycle?? That was an important part of the process that @Freethink didn't seem to include in the video

[Ashallmusica]

I'm currently convinced this time I'm living in, is the era of breakthrough's, where one solution gets Innovated then another one comes related to it. Like Tesla : An EV then this ReCell which is kinda related to Tesla as a Battery running vehicle.

[jenniferwhitewolf]

The rapid pressure to move into electric cars is beyond stupid. The grid is already overstressed, materials to make batteries are scarce and growing in cost, and WILL be gone before a fraction of politically motivated false need is met. Recycling materials is absolutely essential, and to do so economically is beyond essential. Good luck with this.

[RonakDhakan]

Present dumping grounds will be future mines full of various resources.

[Matt-bpvy]

Damn never thought I'd see good informative video about batteries that is also funny. Whoever writes jokes - great job! I already have like 15 tech subscriptions. I didn't think I would ever need another one but I've just subscribed to this channel


If this is not a great way to make yourself stand out around thousands of other channels, I don't know what it is.


PS: Just please make sure you don't have any pseudoscience, over clickbaity stuff (or too many non related movie clips added) on this channel. Not sure why but at first this was my first association when I saw this channel. I guess I was wrong though.

[bidav]

2:07 Jeff doesn't joke, especially not about battery😂😂

[karimkerachni]

This channel is so unbelievably underrated I can’t believe it’s not hit 10 million subscribers

[kelvinpraises]

I love Freethink, glad the channel's growing!

[TuralkT]

5:13 "If I was to design a battery, the first thing I would do is make them more easy to dissassemble"
7:48 "A future with a recycle friendly battery..." Proceeds to show batteries sealed into the floor of an electric car..

Sealing batteries into the floor of cars (Tesla) makes fixing those cars very difficult.. Stop making throwaway cars! make FIXABLE vehicles with easily replaceable battery modules!

And while we're on recycling, remember the three r's, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.. in that order. Alot of dead battery packs in drills, old laptops, almost anything with a battery now sometimes has some cells inside that are healthy and can be reused. Recycle should be the last course of action.

[dreamingacacia]

I don't have background in this area so I'll just leave with my own hypothesis. Similar to how solar cells work, what about using something that renewable from the inside and have a modular architecture to make it so you can change parts which are broken and the recycle process will be for each parts instead of dissolve everything except the core? I'm aware that solar cells need proton to create fission reactions in order to create transfering energy which in turn converted into the usable energy. Parts will get decay as time goes by no matter how great the materials are, so you can use something that safe and durable enough but also disposable or could be recycle. Something that will never run out would be the mechanism itself that producing energy. I mean the battery is the part that keep usable energy right? You can just focus on salvageability so that you get highest materials back at the lowest cost possible(using renewable solutions to decompost things instead of burning the case to get the seed).
This reminded me of the illuminate stars decoration that you would put at the ceiling in your bedroom. How does it glow after you turn off the light? If we can produce the hybrid generator that bouncing from different type of energy to fill the system and can run forever while creating the excess energy that we can use that specific type to create the usable energy. So we basically got free energy forever....well until the parts broken and we have to change them some later time.
That's why focusing on modular architecture would become the most powerful thing to create the foundation for future researches. I'm aware that there are some models that have modular architecture, but they're not hybrid generator or renewable battery.

[tormunnvii]

Market incentives are the problem here.

[motime]

We have been running around in circles about this battery recycling and recycling and repurposeing. We are trying to reset the wrold with little to no thought or idea on how to maintain the reset. Its like trying to help an adict. With no future plan

[BadyTheProgram]

My phone just warned me about low power level, while I watched this video... What a considence.

[smoothvoodoo]

You should get 10cent for each small batterie you recycle and 50cent for a bigger one and so on. Just like Norway does with its used plastic bottles.