There are several reasons to recycle your old lithium ion batteries, including that lithium is a finite resource on this planet and we are using more of it than ever before to power all of our technology and devices.
However, one of the main reasons to make sure you recycle these old batteries responsibly is that they have been responsible for a series of fires in recycling plants in the UK in recent months.
Dead batteries, often referred to as zombie batteries, that aren’t disposed of properly can be a serious fire hazard, particularly if they are crushed or punctured during regular waste processing activities at both disposal and recycling sites.
Circular Online highlighted a new campaign, called Take Charge, that has been launched to make people aware of the importance of recycling their dead batteries, and particularly lithium-ion and nickel-metal Hydride batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries are most commonly found in laptops, tablets, mobile phones, power tools, remote controlled toys, electric toothbrushes and e-cigarettes, among other products.
The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) is backing the Take Charge campaign, with NFCC waste fires lead and assistant chief fire officer of East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service Mark Andrews telling the publication that it’s important to raise public awareness of the issue.
“Batteries in household waste and recycling can lead to large-scale and protracted fires. These incidents are often very challenging for fire services to deal with and can cause significant disruption to communities,” he stated.
In the US, meanwhile, three recycling and waste organisations have come together to develop a guide for developing lithium battery management practices at waste and recycling facilities, Recycling Today reported.
The aim, much like with the Take Charge campaign, is to prevent fires from breaking out at these facilities. As well as raising awareness among the public, the US campaign will also help material recovery facilities draw up procedures for properly disposing of these kinds of batteries and responding to fires.
Last month, an article for Chemistry World pointed out why recycling lithium ion batteries can prove lucrative. For instance, electric vehicles (EVs) currently use lithium ion batteries, but after a certain amount of driving they need to be replaced.
However, when an EV battery reaches the end of its life, it still retains around 80 per cent of its charge. While this isn’t enough for use in vehicles, it does have other uses, including energy storage.
One of the challenges, however, is the cost of recycling these batteries. As founder of Circular Energy Storage Hans Eric Melin told the publication, “If you want to get hold of that material value, you have to disassemble it, you have to crush it, you have to process it in some kind of recycling process.”
By the time they’ve taken all those steps, recyclers are often not left with much more than a few hundred dollars at present, he added.
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