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Environmental Impact of Lithium
Environmental Footprint of lithium
Almost half of the world's lithium supply is found in one of the driest places on earth; the South American triangle of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. To extract lithium, you need water. A lot of water. For every 1 tonne of lithium, you need 500,000 gallons of water. This process can have a huge impact on various industries in the region, such as farming, that rely mainly on water to survive.
Hard to recycle
Lithium ion batteries are extremely hard to recycle. In 2010, the total collection of lithium ion batteries was only about 5% of the total lithium ion batteries put on the market. This recycling process is problematic because of the toxic, highly reactive and flammable material that those lithium ion batteries are made of. The collection amount is directly related to the consumption rate and to the demand of lithium ion batteries. Each month of added usage of our lithium ion battery is one month less that this battery has to sit in a landfill somewhere.