On the Rotary International Day of Service on May 16, the Rotary Club of Alameda is partnering with Redwood Materials to recycle lithium-ion batteries for the good of the planet. Drop off your lithium-ion batteries and items that contain the lithium-ion batteries, such as cell phones, laptops, tablets, rechargeable power tools, electric toothbrushes, wireless headphones, Bluetooth speakers, vaping devices, and any other rechargeable device with a lithium-ion battery, in front of Alameda City Hall at 2263 Santa Clara Avenue from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm on May 16.  Do not bring car batteries. Look for the Rotary banner and friendly volunteers. Two parking spaces will be reserved for drop off in front of Alameda City Hall Plaza.

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 rechargeable items listed above.  These rechargeable batteries contain minerals in limited supply, such as nickel, lithium and cobalt. The mining, processing and shipping of these minerals is energy-intensive, producing greenhouse gases which harm the climate. Today, less than 5% of consumer lithium-ion batteries are recycled, and many have ended up in landfills, causing fires and harmful environmental impacts.

JB Straubel has stated, “Perhaps the largest lithium and cobalt mines can be found in the junk drawers of America”. If we recover 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) we significantly decrease the United States electric vehicle batteries’ reliance on newly mined materials.

Our goal is to develop awareness and a movement to “mine the 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%) will help ensure the security of American supply chains for clean energy technologies and protect the climate and environment.