New Bill Seeks Innovative Ways to Recycle Batteries

A new bill introduced in the Maine State Senate calls on Congress to provide $150 million over the next five years to support research on innovative battery recycling approaches.

Sponsored by Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, the “Battery and Critical Mineral Recycling Act of 2020” would help establish a national collection system that can harvest spent batteries.

According to an article by Grist, “ … if we don’t figure out how to recycle lithium-ion batteries—particularly the big ones inside electric vehicles and those used for energy storage in the electric grid—we’ll eventually wind up with mountains of toxic e-waste.”

Grist has more:

Lithium-ion batteries are expected to play a critical role in the green energy transition, but despite surging global demand for the metals that go into them, we’re doing a terrible job recovering those metals after batteries die. A first-of-its-kind bill introduced in the Senate this month seeks to change that by significantly boosting federal investments in lithium-ion battery recycling.

Sponsored by Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, the “Battery and Critical Mineral Recycling Act of 2020” calls on Congress to dole out $150 million over the next five years to support research on “innovative” battery recycling approaches and to help establish of a national collection system that can harvest the spent batteries gathering dust in our closets. Lithium-ion batteries power everything from smartphones to laptops to electric cars, but with the global appetite for clean energy growing rapidly, experts worry the world could soon face shortages of key battery metals.

Read the full article here.