I know the lithium batteries are supposed to be a pain to recycle but how are the conventional ones broken down to recover all the materials?
I have a bucket I throw dead batteries into and picking it up made me realize just how heavy it is. That is a lot of metal. And metal is money.
It very much depends on the battery type:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_recycling
And for Li-ion batteries there’s several ways listed. None of which is perfect I guess.
To digress a little:
the biggest problem are batteries that aren’t recycled at all. Thrown away. “Forgotten” inside a toy etc.
Meanwhile, just last week: Battery breakthrough as 99.99% of lithium extracted from old cells
nice
Let’s hope it replaces the old methods real soon!