DOE grants $375M loan for lithium battery recycling plant

By ISABELLA O’MALLEY

The U.S. Department of Energy will provide $375 million in loans to a battery recycling company to build its first, and one of the first, lithium ion battery recycling plants in North America. Experts have long talked about recycling the lithium in batteries because mining can be environmentally destructive and supplies in the Earth’s crust ultimately may be limited. There have been three such announcements of lithium recyling plants in recent weeks.