Do the recyclers pay you for the old batteries so that you can swing the new ones? I hear the batteries are quite expensive.
Lithium batteries are considered e-waste; and are not SUPPOSED to be dumped in landfills. This means large scale producers (Black and Decker, Tesla, Samsung, Apple, etc) are required to store spent batteries, which gets expensive.
So, for the short-term, recyclers are PAID to take the feedstock, as it gets the e-waste off the books. If you look at the "Spot Price" for battery grade Lithium, Nickel and Cobalt, you will see that Lithium is running around $60k /metric ton, Nickel bounces between $30-120k/metric ton, and Cobalt is around $80k/metric ton.
Just like aluminum, or scrap steel, these metals can be recycled almost endlessly. The batteries are hermetically sealed, so it's a matter of extracting the pure metals, and entering them back into the supply chain. Yes, it's extremely lucrative
So, short term, the feedstock is shipped to you free, and they will buy all the material you can process to the purity levels they require. Long term, this "feedstock" will be a commodity that recyclers will have to purchase. So, those with a very efficient, fast, low cost method will have a competitive advantage.
I hope this answers you question.
My 10 year old solar batteries have given up. I'll be taking them to a recycler this week.
They are L-16 batteries that weigh about 110 lbs each. I have 16 of them.
I'll get about $20 each for them. Paid $300 each. Hurts, but they did the job.