Redwood Materials, a Nevada-based e-waste recycling startup, has partnered with Lyft, a provider of transportation solutions including shared micro-mobility services, to recycle end-of-life e-bike and scooter batteries. This partnership is a result of Lyft’s efforts to recycle its bikes and scooters by directing their components to specialized recyclers. 

As per the partnership agreement, depleted e-bike/scooter batteries will be shipped to Redwood’s facility in Northern Nevada, where the reusability of the batteries will be checked as the first step. Then the non-reusable ones will be subjected to Redwood’s chemical recycling process and the relevant chemicals like nickel, cobalt, and copper will be extracted, which will then be reintegrated into the battery-making process.

Redwood claims to have the ability to build one new EV battery (~ 65kWh of capacity) from approximately 130 e-bike batteries (~0.5kWh of capacity).

Analyst Quick Take: This announcement follows Redwood Material’s partnership with Panasonic Energy in November 2022 to supply critical battery components. The company has previously partnered with Volkswagen Group (Audi’s parent company), Toyota , Ford , and Audi to recycle batteries. However, this new partnership is noteworthy considering Lyft’s status as North America’s largest electric bike-share operator and its extremely popular bike-sharing system Citi Bike in New York City.