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Electric vehicle batteries:
A case for the circular economy
A model applied to the magine you took two sips from a glass professionals are well aware of the rising
EV battery life cycle of champagne and poured the rest economic costs of scarce resources and the
down the sink. Or ate two pieces of
benefits of reducing waste. Waste is simply
shows how to evaluate I . Or, with 80% of its useful life stuff we have paid good money for but
chocolate and threw the rest of the bar
away
can’t use or sell. But is all “waste” really
the benefits of reuse by remaining, you threw away a £5,000 car waste, or does it have hidden value? What
mapping sustainability battery — a battery that contains many if you could create additional value from
your waste and save money on raw
rare-earth metals and valuable minerals, is
impacts. at least 70% recyclable, and could have materials?
decades of second life in domestic This is at the core of circular economy
renewable energy systems. Makes no thinking, which follows a long business
By Ian Thomson, ACMA, CGMA
IMAGE BY CNYTHZL/ISTOCK landfill will be the fate of most electric and optimising value. That’s why I and
tradition of reducing costs, managing risk,
sense, does it? But without intervention, a
vehicle (EV) — and other types — of
researchers at the Lloyds Banking Group
Centre for Responsible Business at the
batteries.
University of Birmingham in the UK set
This wasteful use of valuable resources
is pushing us to our social, environmental,
out to find a circular solution for EV
20 I FM MAGAZINE I June 2022 and economic limits. Finance batteries, an industry that has massive
