Q&A: How Will We Recycle All the Batteries?

The Intelligentsia is a weekly column featuring industry thought leaders.

This week, I asked Eric Frederickson, Call2Recycle’s Managing Director of Operations & Compliance, about the issue of battery recycling.

JOE GILLARD: What are the barriers you’re seeing for consumers and businesses to properly discard batteries?

ERIC FREDERICKSON: As with many sustainability issues, battery recycling awareness varies across the country. Lack of knowledge and understanding is impeding active recyclers, in many cases, from doing the right thing. Many consumers are simply unaware of the environmental benefits of recycling or that battery recycling is even an available option. And even for consumers who know that they can and should be recycled, the differences in battery composition can create confusion for consumers in how to dispose of them safely and responsibly.

Beyond that, there is also a gap between knowledge and action. Knowing that batteries can be recycled doesn’t translate directly to consumer behavior. Batteries generally can’t be recycled at curbside, so more active engagement is required from consumers. The  Avoid the Spark campaign was launched by Call2Recycle to help educate the public on safety issues and best practices around battery storage and recycling.

When you consider the number of electronic devices being discarded each year along with projected figures on EV batteries reaching their end-of-life, creating pathways to divert these materials from landfills is increasingly important. Proper recycling will ensure that used batteries are taken care of safely, protecting people and the environment from the potential hazards of putting batteries into landfills or mixed recycling streams.

A key part of Call2Recycle’s mission is ensuring that consumers have safe, reliable, and convenient access to collection sites where they can drop off batteries for recycling. With 86 percent of residents living within 10 miles of a Call2Recycle  drop-off location, our national collection network allows for easy and accessible battery recycling. In addition to continuously working to expand the number of collection sites across the country, we also offer mail-in options with our battery recycling kits  available online and accept different types of batteries, including e-bike batteries.

JOE: What materials can be harvested from used batteries, and what is happening to them once they're harvested?

ERIC: Recovered metals from batteries can include steel, nickel, cobalt, cadmium, lead, zinc, aluminum, and copper. After batteries are dropped off at a Call2Recycle collection site, they begin a transformational journey through the recycling process, with the metal eventually getting integrated into new products with any remaining waste safely disposed of according to international recycling standards and state and federal regulations. Batteries are sorted according to their chemistry, and different battery types are sent to processing facilities across the country. When batteries are recycled in Call2Recycle’s network of qualified processors, valuable metals are be recovered and used for new products such as, automobiles, consumer electronics, and new batteries.

JOE: What is the market like for these harvested materials?

ERIC: In recent years, we’ve witnessed increased demand for lithium and other battery materials as more and more devices are powered by batteries and we transition to an increasingly electrified economy. The global battery recycling market is  projected to grow from USD 17.2 billion in 2020 to USD 23.2 billion by 2025, which is leading to rising concerns with the depletion of critical metals, growing demand for recycled batteries and other materials, and evolving government regulations. The EPA has a historic opportunity, made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), to chart a course toward a future where every battery is properly recycled. The EPA has $25 million and five years to put in place best practices for collecting batteries for recycling and developing guidelines for an updated national and voluntary labeling system that promotes recycling. The initiative is part of the Biden Administration and EPA’s bigger push—with $375 million in BIL funding announced in June—to implement new recycling, reuse, and waste prevention programs that advance the circular economy.

JOE: What is Call2Recycle, and why was it formed?

Call2Recycle is the country’s largest consumer battery stewardship and recycling program, with a network of thousands of public collection sites. We were founded in the mid-1990s as a voluntary, industry-run initiative to keep the heavy metals from rechargeable batteries out of the solid waste stream. Thanks to our network of more than 15,000 drop-off sites across the nation, including municipalities and retailers like Lowe's, The Home Depot, and Staples, Call2Recycle has safely and responsibly recycled more than 145 million pounds of batteries across the U.S. since its inception in 1994. We’re now taking the successes and lessons learned from the past 25+ years and applying it to the growing e-transport space, using our existing successful model and scaling it up to meet tomorrow’s recycling needs. Our goal is to responsibly and safely care for the mobile world we live in by continuing to make battery recycling – for all types and sizes - as easy and accessible as possible, for all.

JOE: What about used electric vehicle batteries? Are there unique considerations for recycling and/or putting them to use?

ERIC: When it comes to EV logistics for recycling, it’s more complicated than just taking the battery out, putting it in a box, and shipping it. Large-format EV batteries are regulated, necessitating compliance with stringent handling, storage, treatment, and disposal requirements, as well as U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, some of which carry penalties for noncompliance.

One of the main challenges associated with EV batteries is figuring out how to create shared collections across multiple Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for both cost and environmental efficiencies. Call2Recycle is focused on helping OEMs navigate these hurdles so that EV batteries don’t end up in the wrong places.

The time frame between when lithium-ion batteries enter the market and when they reach their end of life, estimated at 10-13 years, also adds a layer of complexity to scaling the industry. In the last few years, we’ve seen a significant number of new players enter the industry, so the overall capacity to recycle batteries has gone up. But since many EV batteries won’t come off the market for some years, there’s significant uncertainty about when these batteries will make their way to recycling plants. Scaling the industry appropriately will take careful planning, investment, and coordination, with readjustments at each step of the way as new data is generated and technology evolves. The industry will also need to figure out how to deal with other external factors, including whether demand for different battery materials will shift, how future legislation will affect battery sourcing and recycling, and if advanced battery compositions will alter the financial incentives of battery recycling.

Safety also needs to remain a priority throughout the recycling process. Proper handling, training, and procedures are crucial to protect the physical safety of people and organizations trying to transport and recycle EV batteries, not to mention the environmental harms brought on by improper disposal. Given their size and weight, it’s not as simple as just removing these batteries, putting them in a box, and shipping them. There are a myriad of logistical challenges and regulatory intricacies in safely and compliantly handling, storing, shipping, and recycling EV batteries. Call2Recycle is working to solve these challenges by sharing its vast regulatory and logistic expertise to address the unique complexities of EV batteries. Recently, Call2Recycle collaborated with the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) to publish a guidance document, “Regulations Governing Shipment of Electric Vehicle (EV) Batteries in the U.S.” Intended to help clarify the issues on EV batteries, this guide highlights the current regulations and requirements that stakeholders will need to comply with when managing EV batteries at the end of their useful lives.

Lastly, there is a lack of established pathways between EV owners and battery processors, given the industry’s nascency. That’s one area of focus for Call2Recycle: how can we facilitate and refine the EV battery’s journey from consumer to processor? With Call2Recycle’s decades of experience in safe battery management, we know what works for smaller consumer batteries and for cell phones, but we’ll need to adapt and ensure that EV batteries’ recycling journey is just as seamless.

JOE: What change(s) would you like to see to ensure success with battery recycling in the future?

ERIC: As North American recyclers brace for an influx of end-of-life batteries, we must create a unified, national system to collect, recycle, and reuse these batteries. Lithium-ion batteries can have up to a 10- to 13-year lifespan, so they aren’t necessarily off the market now, but we know that time is imminent. With this in mind, we need to plan for the anticipated surge to meet that demand. This includes establishing a sustainable infrastructure to get those batteries safely and cost-effectively from Point A to Point B to reuse or recycle them and, ultimately, reduce the need to mine for new materials. We need that connection to enable a circular and sustainable supply chain — and that’s what Call2Recycle is focused on – helping to navigate the logistics and regulatory intricacies of collecting and transporting these batteries. We’re optimistic we are on the right track, but we must continue to foster innovation, investment, and regulatory stability to get there.

Electrifying our transportation systems and shifting to grid run by green energy and, both critical components of climate action, will require a lot of batteries. The supply of the materials required for batteries is limited, so it’s critical that they are recycled at end-of-life. We’ve always known that battery recycling is an important mechanism to prevent the environmental harms of batteries ending up in landfills, but Call2Recycle is hopeful that battery recycling will become more broadly recognized as a matter of fighting climate change and ensuring national security through critical minerals. This would, in turn, increase consumer awareness of the need to recycle, promote government investment in battery recycling research and development, and ensure that the industry is joining conversations on minerals sourcing.

As our economy increasingly becomes electrified, there are plenty of reasons to be confident in the role battery recycling will play in the years ahead. The trick will be navigating future uncertainty and making sure that we don’t have too little or too much capacity to handle batteries that reach their end-of-life. If we get it right, battery recycling will play an integral role in fulfilling a truly sustainable and circular electrified economy.

Are you a thought leader and would like to be considered for The Intelligentsia? Email the Editor at jgillard@endeavorb2b.com

Photos provided by Call2Recycle