Lithium-free sodium batteries exit the lab and enter US production

[hunter]

18. These are being marketed as an alternative to lead-acid batteries in stationary applications.

If they prove to be as robust and predictable as lead acid batteries in these applications, the next question is their recyclability.

The lead-acid battery recycling industry is well established, although it requires constant regulatory vigilance to keep it clean.

How will these sodium cells be recycled?

One of the advantages advertised by Natron is the abundance of the materials used to make them. That becomes a problem for recycling, as it is for plastic. If it costs less to simply dump old batteries than recycle them that's what many people are going to do.

The problem will be especially bad in places where environmental regulations are not enforced or do not exist.