Shared micromobility firm Lime has reached an settlement to ship batteries utilized in its scooters and e-bikes to Redwood Supplies, which can extract and recycle vital minerals comparable to lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper.
The settlement introduced Monday makes Redwood Supplies the unique battery recycling accomplice for Lime’s shared scooters and e-bikes situated in cities all through the USA, Germany, and the Netherlands. The settlement doesn’t cowl each area wherein Lime operates, a listing that features cities all through Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Lime has had different recycling partnerships previously, notably with Sprout through its downstream distributors. Nevertheless, that is the primary time the shared micromobility firm has had a direct relationship with a battery recycler in North America that may instantly course of materials for restoration and return it to the availability chain.
Redwood Supplies, the Carson Metropolis, Nevada-based startup based by former Tesla CFO JB Straubel, will get better supplies from the batteries as soon as they’ll now not be used. As soon as recovered and recycled, the supplies will likely be reintroduced within the battery manufacturing course of. This closed-loop manufacturing system — which may scale back demand for mining and refining minerals — is on the coronary heart of Redwood Supplies’ enterprise mannequin.
The trouble additionally aligns with Lime’s personal sustainability objectives. Lime has a objective to decarbonize its enterprise by 2030. The corporate has made progress in lowering Scope 1, 2, and three emissions by 59.5% in 5 years from its 2019 baseline years. Lime plans to report its 2024 Carbon Emissions leads to Might.
“This collaboration marks vital progress in direction of establishing a extra round provide chain, serving to guarantee our batteries aren’t solely responsibly recycled as soon as they attain their finish of life, however that their supplies are returned into the battery provide chain,” Andrew Savage, VP for Sustainability at Lime, mentioned in a press release.
Lime additionally has partnerships with Gomi within the U.Okay. and VoltR in France and different European international locations to reap these viable battery cells for “second life” functions, together with for shopper electronics, comparable to moveable audio system and battery packs, amongst different makes use of.
Redwood Supplies has agreements with different micromobility firms, together with Lyft, Rad Energy Bikes, and Specialised to recycle their e-bike and scooter batteries. Redwood, which has raised greater than $2 billion in personal funds, introduced earlier this month it has opened an R&D middle in San Francisco.
