Does The Environmental Impact Of Lithium Ion Batteries

Is the environmental impact of lithium ion batteries worth the gain that we recieve from them as energy storage devices. This issue includes the impacts of mining, producing and dumping of the product which includes the mining of metals like nickel, cobalt and lithium. Batteries are often dumped in landfills and not recycled, recycling batteries can greatly reduce the environmental impact in most cases. The mining of lithium has a negative impact on the environment it is found in and so if there is a community nearby the water can be contaminated. If these batteries were to stop being produced then the first world would be lost for a new way for energy storage and the batteries that are in use now would become useless. The areas where these …show more content…
The application of lithium ion batteries to fields that are fossil fuel dominated would mean that the emissions from fossil fuels would be cut and the mining and production of lithium would look like a small cost to a metal that can be recycled for years after seems the batteries are nearly 100% recyclable. The lithium ion devices are also being mined at the lands expense and is contaminating the water in the area it is extracted from, also the percentage of lithium ion batteries that are recycled in the first world is in the single digits which means there are dangerous chemicals in landfills that could have easily been recycled unlike some chemicals that come from unrecyclable plastics. The batteries are having a negative impact at both ends of the scale at the moment from mining to dumping and even if the materials are recycled there is still a negative impact when mining and producing them with the amount of chemicals …show more content…
The lithium ion batteries have several other applications than fossil fuels seems you can fill them with renewable energy and not have a mobile machine that puts out emissions as it moves. The lithium being mined and processed is affecting the water that it is being removed from and the local people or animals that need this water can't drink it because it is contaminated by the purification of the lithium. Also at the moment the number of lithium ion batteries being recycled is in the single digit percentage range so landfills are being filled with batteries that seep dangerous chemicals that damage the local area's geology and water system by tainting it. The lithium batteries are very useful for their storage ability and their reusability because they can be recharged and this means once there is enough lithium in circulation for batteries then the mining of lithium would slow down and it wouldn't be such a large issue. If the recycling of batteries was increased then the environmental impacts will only be felt at one end and those impacts will become smaller and smaller as the amount of lithium in circulation increases. The mining of lithium doesn’t have a beneficial effect on the