While being fundamental to sustainability, lithium-ion batteries require important steps to manage them both safely and ethically. It is necessary to recycle batteries for a number of reasons. First, batteries placed in trash cans end up in landfills, which is dangerous to both workers and the surrounding community. In landfills, these batteries can cause fires. Recycling these batteries ensures they do not end up in landfills, avoiding the risk of fires, deaths, and huge fines.

 

Secondly, cobalt, a key material in lithium-ion batteries, is often unethically mined with child labor and terrible working conditions in Africa. Furthermore, after the materials are mined, they are processed in China and eventually shipped to America for manufacturing. This results in a 50,000+ mile supply chain, producing a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. By recycling these lithium-ion batteries, the cobalt is retrieved, which reduces reliance on mining, and less material travels the supply chain, limiting greenhouse gas emissions.