As a well-informed electronic engineer you should know that 2 recycling ways of lithium ion battery exists: thermal melting and mechanical shredding. To state that they are simply burned is a confirmed BS.

In the process of melting, the battery cells are melted down. The different melting points allow the raw materials to be separated from each other. Cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium can be recovered to a large extent by the process. However, other materials such as graphite, electrolyte and aluminum are lost.

In the process shredding, the batteries are mechanically reduced in size and sorted into the individual raw materials in the further process. Shredding achieves a recycling rate of 96 percent and the raw materials from recovery are used, for example, in the production of new batteries.

The process of recycling the electric car battery can also save large amounts of CO2 emissions as opposed to new production.

And if electricity for transportation is a dead end road will be latestly decided in a couple of decades when the world reserves of oil are fully gone. Maybe engineers have found at that time a way to produce enormous quantities of electricity which you will definetly need to produce for e-fuels for use in engines with the lowest efficiency (if you compare fossile fuels powered engines with electric engines).

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