The uglier side of electric vehicles: disposing of the EV batteries

Handling the batteries requires a great deal of technical sophistication and care. The EPA team must wear flame-resistant clothing underneath disposable protective suits. Masks cover their faces, and either come with insertable cartridges to filter out chemicals or attach to air tanks. The crew blocks off the area where it's working and keeps water on site in case flames erupt.

Before they can be sent to a waste or recycling facility, the collected batteries must be de-energized so that they hold no charge or very little charge. To do that, Myers said, the EPA will likely use a process developed after the Maui wildfire in 2023, which involves submerging the batteries in a solution of saltwater and baking soda. Once the batteries have lost their charges, they can be crushed with a steamroller or shipped to a facility in special packaging and eventually sent to a recycler who can salvage the critical minerals in them.

Readers are encouraged to view the Larry Elder documentary "Electric Vehicles: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" to learn more about the shell game wealthy countries are using to exploit developing countries to support so-called clean and green electric vehicles, and decide for themselves if the world economies and the environment can accommodate EV's to satisfy the transportation needs for all, not just the few elites on this planet.

And now, as the early EV are aging, we need to deal with an even uglier side of Electric Vehicles –disposing of the toxic EV batteries from old or burned-out EV's, that are polluting the air we breathe and the grounds we walk on.