The Lime shared micromobility company has concluded an agreement to send batteries used in its electric scooters and bikes to sequoia materials, which will extract and recycle critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper.
The agreement announced Monday makes Redwood materials the exclusive battery recycling partner for scooters and shared bikes of Lime located in the cities of the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. The agreement does not cover all the regions in which lime operatesA list that includes cities across Europe, Asia and Australia.
Lime has had other recycling partnerships in the past, especially with Sprut via its downstream suppliers. However, this is the first time that the shared micromobility company has had a direct relationship with a battery recycler in North America which will directly deal with materials for recovery and return to the supply chain.
Redwood Materials, the startup based in Carson City, Nevada, founded by the former Tesla financial director, JB Straubel, will recover battery materials once they can no longer be used. Once recovered and recycled, the materials will be reintroduced in the battery manufacturing process. This closed loop manufacturing system – which can reduce the demand for mining and refined minerals – is at the heart of the business model of redwood materials.
The effort also aligns with the own objectives of lime sustainability. Lime aims to decarbonize its activities by 2030. The company has increased in the reduction of emissions from expanses 1, 2 and 3 of 59.5% in five years from its 2019 reference years. Lime plans to report its 2024 carbon emissions results in May.
“This collaboration marks significant progress towards the establishment of a more circular supply chain, helping to guarantee that our batteries are not only recycled in a responsible manner once they reach their end of life, but that their materials are returned to the battery supply chain,” said Andrew Savage, vice-president of lime sustainability in a press release.
Lime also has partnerships with Gomi in the United Kingdom and Voltr in France and other European countries to harvest these viable battery cells for “Second Life” applications, including for consumer electronics, such as portable speakers and batteries, among other uses.
Redwood Materials has agreements with other micromobility companies, including Lyft, Rad Power Bikes, and specializes to recycle their electric batteries and scooter. Redwood, who collected more than $ 2 billion in private funds, announced earlier this month that it opened a R&D center in San Francisco.
