The mysterious recycling company led by 2 Tesla execs

While Tesla’s cars don’t spew greenhouse gases, experts are still concerned about the environmental impact of their batteries.

That’s what makes the fact that two Tesla executives are now in charge of a recycling company so interesting. Tesla cofounder/CTO Jeffrey Straubel and head of special projects Andrew Stevenson are both listed in an SEC filing as the executive officer and director of Redwood Materials.

It's unclear whether this company is actually related to Tesla. Straubel is involved with other ventures that have nothing to do with the electric car company, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has more than his fair share of outside work.

It's also not clear what the company does. We've asked, but Tesla executives haven't said anything so far. The simplistic website describes the venture as "advanced technology and process development for materials recycling, remanufacturing, and reuse." That's it.

Straubel's interest in recycling does, however, have a connection to Tesla, where he spends a good deal of time thinking about the company's use of batteries. He's talked about recycling their car batteries so raw materials such as cobalt and nickel might be reused.

Whatever it is they're doing, the company currently operates out of a regular office building in Redwood City, California, and the SEC filing shows it has $2 million in its pockets.