A survey about Lithium ion battery recycling

A Survey About Lithium Ion Battery Recycling

Author: Weiye Kuang

School: City College

Supervisor: Maria Vint

Date: November 16, 2019

Class: ENGL 21007 M

Draft 1
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Abstract

As an important port of electronics and electric vehicles, lithium ion

batteries are widely used over the world. Recycling lithium ion batteries

can reduce environment pollution and reuse the precious metals like

cobalt and nickle. Recycling lithium ion batteries also can reduce the

material costs and material demand on foreign resources. However, the

rate of recycling lithium ion batteries is less than 5% in the United States.

In order to find a possible solution to the low recycling rate of lithium ion

batteries, I conducted a survey trying to find the reason of the low

recycling rate and finally got 65 responses. From the survey, I found that

only about 26% of respondents had heard about lithium ion battery

recycling before, and only a few people in these 26% respondents know

how to dispose their old lithium ion batteries responsibly. The first

challenge of increasing the lithium ion battery recycling rate is to increase

people’s awareness, to let more people know the importance of recycling

lithium ion batteries and how to recycle them.

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A Survey About Lithium Ion Battery Recycling

Introduction

Nowadays, lithium ion batteries are widely used in consumer electronics and

electric vehicles due to their high energy lever and low self-discharge. According to

the report Lithium ion battery raw material Supply & demand 2016-2025, more than

2000 million cellular phones with lithium ion batteries were sold in 2016 (Pillot,

2017). It means that more than 2000 millions lithium ion batteries were used in

electronics in 2016. The U.S. Department of Energy(DOE) predicts that the growth in

electric vehicles sales are expected to “double the demand for lithium ion batteries by

2025 and quadruple it by 2030” (DOE, 2019). Like most types of batteries, lithium

ion battery also is recyclable. However, according to DOE, “unlike lead-acid batteries,

which are collected and recycled at a rate of 99%, lithium ion batteries are only

collected and recycled at a rate of less than 5%”(2019). The other 95% lithium ion

batteries will end up in landfills.

The Lithium ion battery recycling supply chain contains collection, separating

and sorting, storage and transportation, reverse logistics and others. In this report, I

will focus on the collection of old lithium ion batteries.

To recycle lithium ion batteries, people can not just throw their old batteries into

the regular recycling bin, but need to take the old batteries to lithium ion batteries

recycling center or collection site. People also can mail their old batteries to the

recycling center, but then they need to pay the fee.

Recycling lithium ion batteries can re-use the precious metals like lithium and
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cobalt. Lithium ion batteries contain substantial amount of cobalt, an important

material which is scarce and expensive. 58% of the world’s cobalt are supplied from

Congo. And a significant portion of the cost of lithium ion batteries is from these

precious metals. Re-use these metals can reduce the cost. Recycling lithium ion

batteries can also reduce environmental pollution. Lithium ion batteries contain some

toxic metals. Because of the low recycling rate, most of the lithium-ion batteries

would end up in landfills. Then the chemicals would leach into soil and finally pollute

our water supply.

Recycling lithium ion batteries can reduce the consequences cause by the wrong

disposal of old lithium ion batteries. Lithium ion batteries are easy to explode, and

most of curbside collection do not accept lithium ion batteries. Many people don’t

know how to dispose their old lithium ion batteries exactly, and throw them into the

curbside collection and their regular recycling bin. As a result, lithium ion batteries

might explode and cause a fire in the collection vehicles, landfills, and materials

recovery facility(MRF). According to the result of SBWMA National MRF Survey,

“ the files in MRF are increasing at a rate of 50%, and most prevalent cause of fires

(in MRF) are Lithium Ion Batteries ”(Michael, 2018).

In the United States, there is no federal policy to promote the recycling of

lithium ion batteries. And only three state laws explicitly incorporate lithium ion

batteries—”California’s Rechargeable Battery Recycling Act of 2006, New York

State’s Rechargeable Battery Law, and Minnesota’s Rechargeable Battery and

Products Law of 1994”(Gaines, 2018). Though these states has a free system for
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customers to return their old lithium ion batteries and ban disposing lithium ion

batteries in landfills. The penalty of violating these laws is nominal or even there is no

penalty. Many people in these states still don’t know the law and lithium ion battery

recycling, disposing their lithium ion batteries irresponsibly. And it is hard to catch

these violators.

In the internet, there are some videos, which show us the importance of recycling

lithium ion batteries and how we should dispose our old lithium ion batteries.

However, the view amounts of these videos are low. And it is hard for us to find these

videos unless we are interesting in lithium ion recycling and search for it. So only a

few people would watch the videos and receive the information, and the videos are

not effective.

In Jan, 2019, U.S. Department of Energy(DOE) launched a Lithium Ion Battery

Recycling Prize. The prize would encourage people to find efficient solutions to

collecting, sorting and transporting lithium ion batteries for recycling. And the

winners would share the award $5.5 million. With the goal to let recycling lithium ion

batteries becomes more profitable, DOE also launched a Lithium Battery R&D Center

to improve the recycling processes to recover the lithium ion battery materials with

lower cost. By now, the prize is still working, and we haven’t had an efficient solution

to recycle lithium ion batteries.

Unfortunately, no matter the laws, the videos or the prize, only a few people

know them. Many people even haven’t heard about lithium ion battery recycling

before. In order to find the reasons of the low recycling rate of lithium ion batteries, I
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conducted a survey. In my survey, I asked the respondents how much do they know

about lithium ion battery recycling, is it convenient for them to recycle lithium ion

batteries, and their opinions on how to increase the recycling rate of lithium ion

batteries.

Method

I created my survey by using Google Forms. In my survey, there are 10

questions, 8 multiple choices and 2 short answers. And 3 of the multiple choices

questions are semi-open questions. The respondents can write down their own

answers if they couldn’t find their answers from the choices.

In the first question, I asked the respondents what they recycle in their daily life

to know if they have a recycling habit. Then to know how much people know about

lithium ion battery recycling, I asked the respondents if they had heard about lithium

ion battery recycling before and how they dispose their old lithium ion batteries. In

order to know is it convenient for the respondents to recycle their old lithium ion

batteries, I tried to know the amount of recycling centers in their neighborhoods, how

far the closest recycling center is, and are they willing to pay for it. I also tried to

know what may prevent the respondents form recycling, and the respondents’

opinions on the low lithium ion battery recycling rate and how to increase the

recycling rate.

I spread my survey through Internet. I sent the link to my peers, friends by

using instant messaging software, like Whatsapp and WeChat. I also posted the link in

the Facebook and CCNY Student Life, an social networking App for city college
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students.

Result

People are lack of knowledge of recycling lithium ion batteries. Up to 95%

respondents have a recycling habit, recycling bottles, paper, plastic, glass or others in

their daily life. However, only about 26% respondents had heard about lithium ion

battery recycling before. And only about 8% respondents know the process of

disposing their old lithium ion batteries.

Many people don’t know how to dispose their old lithium ion batteries

responsibly. More than 50% respondents throw their old lithium ion batteries into the

regular garbage bin or regular recycling bin, which may lead to a fire in the landfill or

materials recovery facility. And about 37% respondents keep their old lithium ion

batteries. Only about 8% respondents take their old batteries to the collection site or

recycling center.

It is not convenient for people to recycle lithium ion batteries. In the 49%

respondents who know the amount of lithium ion battery recycling center in their

neighborhoods, about 37% think there is no recycling center in their neighborhoods,

and the rest 12% say their is one to two neighborhood in their neighborhoods. And a

high percent of the respondents who know the distance form their home to the closest

recycling center say the distance is 3 to 4 miles or even more than 5 miles. So they

need to spent a lot of time to recycle their lithium ion batteries.

Inconvenience of recycling and lacking of knowledge of recycling are the key

factors affecting people’s recycling behavior. More than 60% respondents think that
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they might don’t recycle something if it is inconvenient for them to recycle it, or they

don’t know how to recycle it. Most respondents believe that the lack of knowledge

lead to the low recycling rate of lithium ion batteries.

Discussion

The low awareness of the ability and importance of lithium ion battery recycling

is a key reason of the low recycling rate of lithium ion batteries. About 74%

respondents hadn’t heard lithium ion battery recycling before, which means these

74% respondents may don’t know that lithium ion batteries can be recycled. And

more than 50% respondents dispose their lithium ion batteries inappropriately. Some

people may don’t understand or pay attention to the labeling on the batteries, and

think lithium ion batteries can be deposited in the trash. Many people don’t realize

that lithium ion batteries can not be curbside recycled or misconstrue the symbols,

which caused their lithium ion batteries enter the material recovery facilities and

collection vehicles.

The inconvenience of recycling lithium ion batteries may prevent them from

recycling. More than 60% respondents think the inconvenience of recycling may

reduce their recycling behaviors. Comere, the director of Environment & Government

Affairs at Tetra Pak., also said “Inadequate and inconvenient access to recycling

opportunities are primary impediments to recycling behaviour”(2017). To recycle

bottles, people only need to throw the bottle into the recycling bin. However, to

recycle lithium ion batteries, people need to take the batteries to the lithium ion

battery recycling center or collection sites, and people need to spend a lot of time in
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this process. So how convenient recycling lithium ion is is depended on the amount of

the recycling centers and collection sites, and how far the closest recycling center is.

By now, the amount of lithium ion battery recycling center is limited. Only about 12%

respondents say there is 1 to 2 lithium ion battery recycling centers in their

neighborhoods. The rest 88% respondents don’t know any recycling center or there is

no recycling center in their neighborhood. And only a part of collection sites accept

lithium ion batteries. It is hard for people find a place to recycle lithium ion batteries.

And a high percent of respondents live far away from the recycling centers. They need

to spend lots of time to take the batteries to the recycling center.

Conclusion

Lithium ion batteries are widely used over the world. Recycling lithium ion

batteries can reuse the precious metals in the batteries, reducing the costs of the

batteries and the material demand on foreign resources. Recycling lithium ion

batteries also can reduce environment pollution and reduce the fires caused by the

inappropriate disposal of lithium ion batteries. However, the lithium ion battery

recycling rate is less than 5% in United States.

Though there are some solutions to the low recycling rate of lithium ion

batteries now, they don’t make a big difference, since only a few people know these

solutions. In order to find the major reasons of the low lithium ion battery recycling

rate, I conducted a survey. From the survey, I found that the awareness of the ability

and the importance of lithium ion battery recycling is row, and it is inconvenient for

people to recycle their old lithium ion batteries.

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Basing on my findings, the first challenge of increasing the recycling rate of

lithium ion battery is to find an effective way to increase people’s awareness, to let

more people know that they can recycle lithium ion batteries and how to recycle them.

Then government also need to provide a more convenient way for people to

participate in recycling lithium ion batteries.

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Reference List

U.S. Department of Energy. (2019). Battery Recycling Prize Official Rules. Retrieved

from:https://americanmadechallenges.org/batteryrecycling/battery-recycling-

prize-rules-and-scoring-criteria.pdf

Pillot, C. (2017). Lithium ion battery raw material Supply & demand 2016-2025.

http://cii-resource.com/cet/AABE-03-17/Presentations/BRMT/Pillot_Christo

phe.pdf

Timpane, M. (2018). Lithium Ion Batteries in the Solid Waste System - SBWMA

MRF Survey.

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-03/documents/timpane_epa_

li_slides312_ll_1.pdf

Gaines, L., Richa, K., & Spangenberger, J. (2018). Key issues for Li-ion battery

recycling. MRS Energy & Sustainability, 5, E14. doi:10.1557/mre.2018.13

Comere, E. (2017). Factors that Impact Consumer Recycling Behaviour. Retrieved

from:https://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/1797-factors-that-impact-consumer

-recycling-behaviour