#109: The Michelangelo of Batteries? How Green Li-Ion’s Turning Battery Disposal Positive

Did you know power tools, electronics, toys, and phones all use lithium-ion batteries? OR that as of 2023, we only recycle less than 5% of Lithium batteries?

This week we spoke with Green Li-Ion Co-founder, Leon Farrant, who went from living off the grid to working in the oil & gas industry, and finally full CIRCULAR back to Green Li-Ion. 

Green Li-Ion is a lithium-ion battery recycling startup who are turning battery disposal from negative to positive. Green Li-Ion COULD be considered the Michelangelo of lithium-ion batteries, where they spent 10 years developing a proprietary machine that could process old batteries in 1 fell swoop.

We dive deep into…What’s the circular economy and how it plays together with climate tech, how anyone could start a battery recycling business and make it profitable & lucrative using Green Li-Ion’s tech, and how the battery supply chain is a mess yet has explosive potential over the next 20 years.

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Listen to the episode on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

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Show Notes

• [2:12] Why do you recommend the book, The War of Art?
• [3:04] Do you consider yourself to be a creative person?
• [3:57] How come you have to be creative in a circular economy business?
• [5:23] How The War of Art enables business people to be creative
• [5:54] How old were you when you registered your 1st company?
• [6:17] Whats ‘the tip’?
• [6:43] When did you start the company you ended up selling?
• [7:24] How old were you?
• [7:42] What was it like building a company at a young age?
• [10:20] Champagne and razor blades!
• [11:16] When did you 1st start thinking about climate change?
• [14:30] What’s the deal with lithium-ion batteries?
• [16:07] What is the circular economy? Why is it interesting to you?
• [18:33] Where in your mind do circular economy companies fit into climate tech?
• [19:50] What’s the abbreviated story of how Green Li-Ion was founded?
• [22:37] Why did you take a bet on this technology?
• [25:24] This hasn’t been done before, is that right?
• [27:55] How Green Li-Ion goes from 24 hours to 8 hours to process old batteries
• [29:16] What if I want to start a battery recycling business. What would it take to get going?
• [33:06] How Green Li-Ion decided they didn’t want to fight for the black mass raw material
• [35:37] Do we have the factories & remanufacturing in place in the US to process recycled battieries?
• [37:52] What the Green Li-Ion battery recycling process is
• [39:06] How big is this market? Where’s it going over the next 20 years?
• [40:59] Do we know how many batteries are out in the world right now?
• [41:25] What Green Li-Ion’s mission is: creating a circular economy for batteries
• [42:21] Why have some economies made battery manufacturers responsibility for batteries lifecycles
• [44:20] the “moat” battery manufacturers are creating, as a way to capitalize on the batteries they produce
• [47:45] How Green Li-Ion is building for the future
• [48:34] How do you all make money?
• [50:35] What challenges did starting as a global company bring?
• [51:59] How would you describe the culture in 3 words?
• [53:10] What’s a big thing you’ve learned that you’d like to share with someone starting a deep tech company?
• [56:52] From your perspective, what in your mind is the next big step change we need to make in climate tech?
• [59:32] Rapid Mayhem Questions!
• [1:03:39] What would you say to someone who says climate and capitalism can’t co-exist?
• [1:04:53] Right now when you think about the everyday person, what is something they can do TODAY?
• [1:06:46] Where can we find you?

Links From Episode

• Connect with Leon: LinkedIn
• Follow Green Li-Ion: LinkedIn | Website
• Get in touch with Green Li-Ion: here
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
• What is deep tech
• How lithium-ion batteries work
• What is a lead acid battery
• Reza Katal (co-founder of Green Li-Ion)
• What is black mass
• What is CapEx (Capital Expenditure)
• What is cathode material
• What is cobalt in EV batteries
• Lee Kuan Yew
• According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 80% of household items are used less than 1x a month (source)
• As of 2020, our world economy is 9.1% circular, leading to a massive circularity gap  (source)
• Lithium-ion batteries can be charged and discharged 100s of times before their capacity starts to degrade significantly (source)
• As of 2021, we were using ~1.6 earths; meaning we’re using about 60% more of the earth’s resources than it can regenerate every year. By 2050 we could get to 3-4 earths (source)
• The Tesla Model 3 runs on lithium-ion batteries! It has a minimum 2,170 batteries in the base of the car (source)

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Connect with Ty Wolfe-Jones and Jakub Kubicka

• With Ty Wolfe-Jones on LinkedIn
• With Ty Wolfe-Jones on Twitter
• With Jakub Kubicka on LinkedIn
• With Jakub Kubicka on Twitter

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