⁍ Tesla co-founder J.B. Straubel wants to build his startup Redwood Materials into the world’s top battery recycling company.

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⁍ With production of electric vehicles and batteries about to explode, Straubel says his ultimate goal is to ‘make a material impact on sustainability, at an industrial scale

– With production of electric vehicles and batteries about to explode, Tesla co-founder JB Straubel says his ultimate goal is to ‘make a material impact on sustainability, at an industrial scale.’ Established in early 2017, Redwood Materials will recycle more than 1 gigawatt-hours’ worth of battery scrap materials from Tesla’s Nevada gigafactory—enough to power more than 10,000 Tesla cars, reports Reuters. That’s a fraction of the half-million vehicles Tesla expects to build this year. At the company’s Battery Day in late September, Chief Executive Elon Musk said he was looking at recycling batteries to supplement the supply of raw materials from mining as Tesla escalates vehicle production. Redwood’s partnership with Panasonic started late last year with a pilot operation to recover materials at Redwood’s recycling facilities in nearby Carson City, according to Celina Mikolajczak, vice president of battery technology at Panasonic Energy of North America. “People underestimate what recycling can do for the electric vehicles industry,” she says. “This could have a huge impact on raw material prices and output in the future.”