Cleaner Tech
‘A Damn Hard Thing to Do’: Tesla Co-Founder JB Straubel Takes on Battery Recycling
An in-depth conversation about EVs and how his latest venture, Redwood Materials, is transforming the battery supply chain to compete with China.
JB Straubel stands above 30 acres of batteries waiting to be recycled.
Photographer: Emily NajeraTesla Inc. co-founder JB Straubel wasn’t content with simply reinventing the automobile for the 21st century. He left in 2019 feeling he needed to redesign the global supply chain for the electrified future, too.
That’s exactly what he’s been doing for the last five years. The company he built, Redwood Materials, is now the largest battery recycler in North America, and it’s using those recycled materials to manufacture complex battery components that have traditionally been imported from abroad, largely from China.