Don't ever listen to someone trying to sell you something. "They" are having problems because the house of cards we humans have built is still wobbling from Covid-19. Recycling will get better and better as it has been for a long time now. Hopefully, it will become mandatory for the majority of products and materials that we are currently discarding, and 100% of shipping materials be mandated to be both recyclable and compostable. Believe it or not, glass isn't recycled by my trash removal company... f***ing glass isn't recycled? Why? Because there isn't enough profit in it for LeMay to bother. There's a lot of value in old lithium batteries just like there is in lead-acid batteries (over 90% recycled today) and that will keep the majority out of landfills. So... you are worried about pollutants and toxins being placed in the ground but don't care about them being released into the air? Is that because it would actually affect you personally? Whereas with air pollution you can turn a blind eye to it and keep playing as you want? It's got to be hard to be a caring environmentalist (or parent/grandparent) and ride around on a noisy smoker. Try and remember that the U.S. doesn't have nearly the problem with 2-strokes that much of the world does.
Google search: "The approximate amount of lithium on earth is between 30 and 90 million tons. That means we will run out eventually... but we're not sure when. PV Magazine states it could be as soon as 2040, assuming electric cars demand 20 million tons of lithium by then."
Two decades... think of how far new battery technology will advance in 20 years.
This was in 2014 and things are far worse today -
Six per cent of bikes and 70 per cent of three wheelers run on two-stroke engines in India
www.downtoearth.org.in
Yeah, I'm glad they are being banned and hope that it accelerates exponentially worldwide. Stay safe.