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Japan finds a way to recover 90% of lithium from old EV batteries
(www.techspot.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Kickstarting new infrastructure is one place government money tends to work well. You can always phase out the subsidies and there is an argument that battery tech benefited from a feedback loop (used in phones until infra and tech was cheap enough for cars+) and something needs to kickstart that for their recycling, government stepping in to start that loop isn't uncommon or as terrible as you seem to be making it out