[alvern]

Currently anything Li-ion is around $1.50 per pound (Midwest US prices) to be accepted for hazardous waste recycling. This means it costs you the consumer to have your laptop battery recycled.

I work with a company that recycles older hybrid batteries from Toyota, Honda, Ford. Most of these are NiMH and pay $0.40-$0.80 per pound for the Nickel value alone.

So a NiMH hybrid battery is worth $50 for the core from a Prius, but a lithium battery from a Nissan Leaf would cost you ~$700 to recycle.