In some countries…

If there's a future.

Yes!

This looks promising! I look forward to seeing more news about it!

Yes there are several companies working along these lines. Once EVs become ubiquitous and plentiful, they’ll be able to reduce mining and significantly supplement battery production with recycled materials.

the main thing here is the cost of recycling

When compared to the safe and environmental cost of mining? I'm also thinking that one day, when large (EV size) lithium batteries are plentiful, the cost of recycling is bound to go down because for one thing, the processes will be fewer as will the waste created by smaller battery shells etc.

Some of us think the environmental costs should be included in accounting, short-term profit is more important to corporate interests (and, apparently to the US now too).

This is the largest cost, and it will be ignored so that billionaires can retain a few extra nickels.

We already know it is *possible* to almost fully recycle lithium from batteries. The only thing that actually matters though is whether a ton of recycled lithium costs more or less than a ton of mined lithium.