4 top startups chasing the $23 billion battery recycling market – and solving a major problem for electric cars

• As US incentives push for more electric cars, recyclers will face a “mountain” of battery waste.
• Most battery recycling companies in the US are still in the early stages of development.
• From transporting heavy batteries to recovering metals, the industry faces several hurdles.

The drive to sell more electric cars will create a massive amount of waste, and along with it a lucrative new opportunity for those who know what to do with it.

As massive factories – dubbed gigafactories by Tesla CEO Elon Musk – race to pump out lithium-ion batteries to support a widespread shift to electric vehicles, they’re seeding the ground both for a huge waste problem and a supply chain crisis.

The electric cars on the road today will contribute to 15 million tons of global battery waste when they reach the end of their life – within seven to 10 years of production – according to data from Li-Cycle.