Could electric vehicle battery waste fix concrete’s carbon problem?

Tuesday 09 Dec 2025
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Imagine waking up in 2040 to unusually quiet streets. By then, an estimated 60% of vehicles worldwide could be electric, cutting air pollution and noise in cities. But the shift to cleaner transport comes with a lesser-known problem – a huge rise in mining waste.

Lithium, a vital ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, leaves behind extraordinary amounts of waste. In 2023 alone, the global battery industry generated 1.8 million tonnes of lithium-related waste, almost all of it sent to landfill.

At the same time, the construction sector faces its own environmental crisis. Concrete is the most widely used man-made material on Earth. We produce enough of it each year to build a wall around the planet twice over.

Read more in The Conversation