So I'm taking a Ecology class and we were talking about Hybrids. We agree that it saves money and doesn't pollute as much, but what happens to the batteries when they go bad. Won't that just be another problem at the dump? It's a special battery and as far as I know you can't recycle them.

It's my understanding that every component from those batteries is in fact recyclable. That was established early in their R&D.
Key to this is the costs involved.

If there was as much spent to subsidize the electric side of the propulsion technologies as is spent on fossil fuels subsidies, far more could be done!

Who wants to deny that?
Getting OFF fossil fuels may be nearly impossible but we needn't contribute more if we don't have to.

Captain is correct. The entire lithium battery is recyclable. So are NiMH batteries.