Although spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) recycling could reduce raw materials production, environmental and economic tradeoffs may not necessarily neutralize impacts associated with additional inputs. Here, we evaluated life cycle environmental and economic tradeoffs of traditional hydrometallurgy for mixed spent LIBs recycling. We revealed impacts of the main and co-products recycling, and their contribution to the impacts from the overall recycling process. Cobalt was the main product due to the highest market value, Li₂CO₃, nickel, Na₂SO_4, and graphite were co-products which require additional recycling procedures to obtain. Results suggest co-products recycling doubled the net greenhouse gas emission, and the economic gain decreased by $26 compared to the main product recycling (per kg Co recycled). Conversely, human health impacts were mitigated by co-products recycling due to avoiding virgin co-products production. Our work highlighted that optimizing co-products recycling is vital to minimizing environmental impacts and enhancing the economic feasibility of spent LIB recycling.

尽管废旧锂离子电池 (LIB) 的回收可以减少原材料的生产，但环境和经济的权衡可能不一定能抵消与额外投入相关的影响。在这里，我们评估了传统湿法冶金在混合废锂电池回收方面的生命周期环境和经济权衡。我们揭示了主要和副产品回收的影响，以及它们对整个回收过程影响的贡献。由于市场价值最高，钴是主要产品，Li ₂ CO ₃、镍、Na ₂ SO _4、和石墨是需要额外回收程序才能获得的副产品。结果表明，副产品回收使温室气体净排放量翻了一番，与主要产品回收（每公斤回收的钴）相比，经济收益减少了 26 美元。相反，由于避免了原始副产品的生产，副产品回收减轻了对人类健康的影响。我们的工作强调优化副产品回收对于最大限度地减少环境影响和提高废 LIB 回收的经济可行性至关重要。