A well-regulated domestic program for recycling lithium batteries could be the key to making renewable energy truly sustainable.
Late last June, a fire broke out at an abandoned paper mill in the small town of Morris, about 60 miles south of Chicago. The firefighters who rushed to the scene discovered the plant’s warehouse contained an estimated 100 tons of lithium-ion batteries, as well as a “large quantity of lead/acid batteries, nickel cadmium batteries, solar panels, and other waste electronics,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Residents within a half-mile radius evacuated to avoid the toxic fumes. It took nearly a week to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters didn’t use water or foam because those materials “can accelerate battery fires and cause environmental damage,” the EPA noted in its post-fire action memorandum. They eventually used Portland cement to entomb the smoldering ruins.
Jin Zheng, the president of Superior Battery, Inc., told a local reporter the day after the blaze broke out that he had planned to use the warehouse to charge new batteries before sending them on to customers. But the EPA, in its memorandum, listed at least 25 tons of “damaged, defective, or recalled lithium batteries” at the site, as well as “numerous pallets of e-waste.”
Batteries are the linchpin of the coming shift to electrical vehicle production, as well as renewable energy more broadly. Sensing a consumer groundswell in favor of vehicle electrification, most major...
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