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j b straubel has been called one of the brains behind Tesla's success.

Now, he is attempting to use what many would see as trash to power the electric car revolution.

Though founded just a few years ago, his company Redwood Materials is already recycling 20 gigawatt hours of lithium ion batteries each year.

That's roughly equivalent to what would be found in 250,000 electric cars.

The elements they are pulling out of those batteries, not out of the ground, are helping the

company generate cash by selling materials such as lithium

and nickel back into the battery supply chain.

It feels a bit like we are inventing the next generation of refineries, so to speak.

Straubel speaks softly, but don't let that deceive you.

He says Redwood is on track for about $200 million

in revenue this year. And he imagines a day when all electric cars are running on recycled batteries,

and recycled batteries are supplying materials that go into everything in our lives,

from a greatly expanded power grid to every consumer gadget in our homes, Appliances, power tools, our cell phones.

In that future, he sees a world where humanity no longer has to pursue the messy, destructive

process of extracting these materials from the earth.

If anyone can pull this off, Straubel may be able to.

He spent 15 years at Tesla, where his contributions were so great he was

considered a co-founder. He was Elon Musk's battery guy. And now he is on the company's board.

While at Tesla, Straubel learned firsthand the challenges of disrupting industries, long days, hard work,

incredible optimism. Now he's applying what he learned from

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