RecycLiCo CEO Zarko Meseldzija Talks Battery Recycling, Black Mass, and Urban Mining

One of the most common refrains from the anti-EV crowd revolves around the idea that pulling the raw materials necessary to produce an electric car’s battery out of the ground is dirty and carbon-intensive. While that’s true in some contexts, it overlooks the fundamental manufacturing advantage that EVs have over ICE vehicles: their raw materials can be recycled. One of the leading innovators in the battery recycling space is RecycLiCo, a Canadian company that has patented a unique process to recycle and upcycle 99% of the cathode material in an EV’s li-ion battery, turning what’s commonly referred to in the industry as “black mass” into a new kind of “black gold” and creating multiple efficiencies along the way.

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to sit down with RecycLiCo’s engineer-turned CEO Zarko Meseldzija for an episode of CleanTech Talk where Zarko was able to share some of his engineering insights, explain some of the efficiencies his firm could help build into their partners’ processes, and how urban mining — which views trash and other waste materials as a source of potential materials, as opposed to going into landfills or incinerators — can do more for the recycling industry than you might think.

RecycLiCo CEO Zarko Meseldzija Explains Why Black Mass Is The New Black Gold

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