Rotary and Interact Clubs to host lithium-ion battery recycling drive

The use of lithium-ion batteries is increasing, not only as the electric vehicle industry is scaling, but also with the increasing use of these batteries in cell phones, laptops, tablets, power tools, electric toothbrushes, wireless headphones, vaping devices and any other rechargeable device with a lithium-ion battery.

These rechargeable batteries contain minerals in limited supply, such as nickel, lithium and cobalt, many of which are mined in third world countries.

Mining is not environmentally friendly and these countries do not adhere to high environmental and safety standards. In the case of cobalt, the mines and the processing are dominated by China.

Future supply of these minerals will not be able to keep up with the surge in demand.

Today, less than 5 percent of consumer lithium-ion batteries are recycled and many have ended up in landfills, causing fires and harmful environmental impacts.

The Rotary Club of Mariposa Yosemite and the Mariposa Interact Club are partnering with Redwood Materials, a company founded by the ex-CTO and cofounder of Tesla, JB Straubel.

Having led battery cell design and scaling the first Gigafactory at Tesla, Straubel saw first-hand the need to recycle lithium-ion batteries, especially electric car batteries.

Redwood focuses on creating a closed loop supply chain for battery components, built from as many end-of-life batteries as possible, including consumers’ rechargeable lithium-ion devices the same way that they recover materials from old hybrid and electric vehicle batteries through an incredibly efficient and sustainable process.

“Perhaps the largest lithium and cobalt mines can be found in the junk drawers of America,” said Straubel.

These scarce metals from non-working or not needed products and consumer lithium-ion batteries (which can be sustainably broken down to their raw metals nearly infinitely) significantly decreases the United States electric vehicle batteries’ reliance on newly mined materials.

The Interact and Rotary Clubs are targeting households in the community and offering a lithium-ion battery recycling drive on Saturday, May 16 at Mariposa County High School from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The goal is to develop awareness and a movement to “mind junk drawers of America.” There isn’t a requirement to extract the battery to recycle, just bring the entire product to be recycled.

The recovery of the critical minerals (up to 95 percent) will help ensure the security of American supply chains for clean energy technologies.