Former Tesla exec inks new recycling deal as battery costs soar 

Walk with JB Straubel through the Redwood Materials recycling plant in Carson City, Nevada and one thing stands out: Pallets stacked on top of pallets filled with old batteries, defective battery cells and scrap material from the nearby Panasonic plant.

“The sheer magnitude of the waste and scrap problem and the magnitude of batteries that need to get recycled is, I think, shocking to most people,” said Straubel, the founder and CEO of Redwood Materials. Straubel spent more than a decade at Tesla, before resigning as chief technical officer in 2019 so he could focus on growing his recycling company.

Redwood Materials has reached an agreement to recycle scrap and defective battery cells for…