The Recycling Partnership Reveals U.S. Circular Economy Roadmap

Tesla Inc. co-founder JB Straubel’s recycling startup Redwood Materials is partnering with North American electronic waste processing company ERI to recycle batteries and solar panels. What Happened: As part of the partnership, Nevada-based Redwood has made an undisclosed investment in ERI and Straubel has been elected to ERI’s board.  The partnership will aim to deliver the last mile of electronic recycling of solar panels and batteries in a process that would ensure key elements such as cobalt, nickel, copper, and lithium that are used in electric vehicle batteries are kept out of landfills and responsibly recycled, besides putting them to use again in new products.  Straubel left Tesla in 2019 to focus on Redwood and work on recovering and recycling elements such as cobalt, lithium, nickel and copper. The demand for metals is on the rise due to the increasing shift to electric vehicles, along with concerns of its availability and the environmental harm that it could bring.