Call2Recycle Applauds Canadians on Battery Recycling Progress

Toronto -- Call2Recycle Canada Inc., Canada’s leading battery collection and recycling program, celebrates an impressive recycling achievement passing over 40 million kilograms of used batteries – the equivalent weight of 3,300 school buses – diverted from landfills and recycled since the creation of the program in 1997.

This exceptional milestone is the result of a number of long-term collaborations across many Canadian sectors to build a sustainable economy and reduce solid waste and carbon emissions. As reliance on battery-powered devices – from laptops to household appliances, eBikes and Electric Vehicles (EVs) – continues to grow, this is likely to entail a sharp increase in the need for batteries to be responsibly managed at end-of-life over the coming decades. For over 25 years, federal and provincial governments, industries and partners across multiple business sectors including power tools, e-bikes, retailers and battery companies have been partnering with Call2Recycle to provide an environmentally friendly solution.

Discarded batteries may end up in landfills where they may harm the environment and worsen Canada’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Landfills are the largest source of emissions from Canada’s solid waste sector (83% of total waste emissions in 2019). The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan identifies waste prevention, reuse, and recycling as key sources of potential for GHG reductions.

Call2Recycle has been at the forefront of the effort to reduce these waste-related emissions since 1997, working with battery manufacturers, retailers, provincial governments, and municipalities, to build an efficient collection program and support battery initiatives everywhere across the country. As Canada is gearing up for net-zero emission strategies towards 2050, Call2Recycle is ready to support the changes in the economy and increase battery recycling diversion rates in the coming years.

“This remarkable milestone is the result of hard work, commitment and collaboration from many stakeholders, from our battery manufacturing and retail members, collection site partners to provincial governments and municipalities, but above all from all Canadians over the last 25 years,” said Joe Zenobio, President of Call2Recycle Canada. “As we look forward to our goals for the coming decades, we will continue innovating and expanding our recycling infrastructure so that it can support Canada’s growing battery market, including the increased production of batteries for electric vehicles.”

Over the past 25 years, Call2Recycle has built an extensive battery collection network with more than 10,000 participating collection locations across Canada, including at leading retailers and municipal facilities. Call2Recycle has put a strong focus on making battery recycling as accessible as possible for consumers, including establishing partnerships with local community organizations across Canada to help people recycle their batteries while building positive, long-lasting habits.

By recycling batteries properly, Canadians are preventing fire risks, and the chemical and metal components of batteries from ending up in landfills and harming the environment. The environmental impact of diverting 40 million kilograms of batteries from landfills can be estimated to preventing approximately 6,260,000 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) emissions (source: EcoBatt).[1]

How can Canadians support?

Used batteries can be processed and used to make a variety of objects such as golf clubs, pots and pans and silverware, and should never be thrown away in the garbage or recycling bin. All Canadians can make battery recycling a regular habit by following three simple steps: collect, protect, and drop off.

There are over 10,000 Call2Recycle collection sites across Canada to safely dispose of batteries. To find your nearest drop-off point, go to www.RecycleYourBatteries.ca.

About Call2Recycle Canada, Inc. 

Call2Recycle® is Canada’s leading organization for battery collection and recycling, fulfilling product stewardship obligations on behalf of over 400 members, including producers of single-use and rechargeable batteries. It is the provincially-approved consumer battery collection and recycling program for British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island, and operates as a registered Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) in Ontario according to the Ontario Batteries Regulation. Call2Recycle accepts household batteries (weighing up to 5 kg) for recycling and eTransport batteries used to power eBikes, eScooters, eSkateboards, Hoverboards and Electric Vehicles (EVs).

Since its inception in 1997, Call2Recycle has diverted more than 40 million kilograms of batteries from Canadian landfills. This reputation for excellence has enabled Call2Recycle to maintain trusted, long-term relationships with stakeholders and a network of more than 10,000 participating collection locations across Canada, including at leading retailers and municipal facilities.