I saw a news segment of some location in China where there were thousands of old EV batteries in piles. The company was supposed to be recycling them, but the piece was on how impossible that was as each battery was a different design. Not only was it difficult to take the main assembly apart, but the cells themselves could burst into flames if they weren’t handled perfectly and each manufacturer built them differently. This recycling company had become a dumping ground for old batteries that were filled with toxic chemicals that could burst into flames under a wide variety of circumstances.
A dead lithium-ion battery won’t “burst into flames”.
And if they’re sitting in a scrap pile, they’re most certainly dead.