Battery recycler Redwood Materials recently announced plans to build a new battery materials campus in South Carolina for $3.5 billion. This plant will be 600 acres within the vicinity of the Charleston area, closer to the so-called "Battery Belt" of the United States.

According to Redwood Materials, the plan is to recycle electric vehicle batteries privately so that the overall state of carbon emissions will decrease. Redwood also said that it intends to be fully electric without the use of any type of fossil fuels in its production.

In addition, Redwood Materials has stated that it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions "about 80% compared to the current Asia-based supply chain that we are dependent on for these crucial materials."

This past November, Redwood revealed that it would offer high-nickel cathode material to Panasonic Energy, where it is created in De Soto, Kansas. "The federal government has put together a pretty clear set of pretty substantial incentives that guide the direction of this transition, and it's really benefiting the country right now," Redwood Materials CEO JB Straubel told Axios.

Redwood Materials, established in 2017 by Jeffrey "JB" Straubel, who was once the chief executive officer for Tesla (TSLA  ), currently recycles electric vehicle batteries coming from Ford (F  ), Toyota (TM  ), Nissan (NSANY  ), Specialized, Motion, and Lyft (LYFT  ), among others. The way that it works is that Redwood will utilize the batteries from these sources in order to refine elements like nickel, copper, and cobalt. Then some of this material will be able to be implemented in the process of battery-making.

It has been reported that Redwood Materials will make 100 GWh of cathode (a positive electrode) and anode (a negative electrode), which would be enough to fuel over one million electric vehicles. Cathode foils consisting of elements like lithium, nickel, and cobalt, make up over 50% of the cost of a battery cell. Redwood can generally utilize the materials through its recycling processes.