recycling batteries is expensive, lead recycling is almost solved (it's not 100% and given it's chemistry, even 1% leaking into the enviroment isn't a good deal) but lithium?

lithium recycling is _expensive_, batteries don't have an universal design to make the recycling a standard protocol... facilities and transportation of recycling/recycled batteries is also not a child's play - i highly doubt, given our grief (think like PET plastic being super easy to recycle yet the amount of it on oceans), we'll make green energy not green, otherwise we would be dropping money on nuclear research rather than technology that worns out in 20-25 years of use and produce thousands and thousands of metric tons of thrash