Battery recycling : Partnership between Tesla Cofounder's Battery Recycling Startup and ERI to recycle lithium-ion batteries
As part of the partnership, Redwood Materials, which already recycles battery materials from Panasonic and Amazon, has made a significant strategic investment in ERI, North America’s biggest processor of electronic waste. JB Straubel, co-founder and CEO of Redwood Materials (and previously Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Tesla), has been elected to ERI’s board of directors.
Initially, Redwood will receive up to 30 tons a week of lithium-ion batteries collected by ERI. Additionally, the partnership marks the launch of Redwood and ERI’s new business line to recycle solar panels. ERI will now team with Redwood Materials for the responsible recycling of solar panels.
“ERI and Redwood Materials working together signals a unique, unprecedented partnership that will tackle the ‘last mile’ of electronic recycling: solar panels and batteries,” said John Shegerian, ERI’s Co-Founder and Executive Chairman. “And it will be done in a radically transparent, end-to-end closed-loop manner where elements – from cobalt, nickel, copper, lithium – will be kept out of landfills, responsibly recycled, and put back into new products. We are incredibly excited to be entering into this strategic partnership with Redwood Materials.”
“Redwood is focused on steadily and relentlessly improving recycling economics with technology to reduce the cost of materials and create a circular supply chain to power a sustainable future,” said JB Straubel, Redwood Materials Co-Founder and CEO. “By partnering with ERI, we’ll be able to ensure the largest supply of e-waste batteries in the US is recycled into materials to build new EVs and clean energy products.”
“For ERI, as always, radical transparency is key,” added Shegerian. “The strategic partners with whom we work to achieve Circular Economy goals are not only our downstream partners, they are investors in our company and sit on our board. This is a paradigm that is unparalleled in the recycling industry throughout the world.”