April 14, 2022 - In early November 2021, PeopleForBikes and Call2Recycle announced the launch of the US. bicycle industry’s first industry-wide e-bike battery recycling program. Call2Recycle is considered the largest and most reliable battery recycling program expert in the USA, and their current CEO and President, Leo Raudys, took over in January 2021.

“Call2Recycle was founded as a voluntary, industry-run initiative to keep heavy metals from rechargeable batteries out of the solid waste stream. Since 1994, Call2Recycle has grown from an idea by a group of five battery manufacturers to a pioneer in battery stewardship, collection and recycling logistics,” said Raudys in our interview with him.

Through its established network of more than 16,000 drop-off sites, including municipalities and retailers like Lowe’s, The Home Depot and Staples, Call2Recycle has recycled more than 140 million lbs.
of batteries across the US and about 73 million lbs. in Canada, for a total of 213 million lbs.

Call2Recycle maintains a diverse
customer base, including Stewards,
Collection Sites and Consumers. Stewards
include the more than 200 battery and/
or product manufacturers — such as
Dell, Duracell, Energizer, Panasonic,
Stanley Black & Decker, etc. — who fund the Call2Recycle program to ensure the batteries they are introducing into the marketplace are responsibly recycled.

Collection sites are those collecting batteries for recycling through Call2Recycle, including public-facing sites, such as The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Staples, to HHW/ municipalities, and private entities such as manufacturers, hospitals, military bases and businesses.

The genesis of this new program began in December 2019 when Call2Recycle participated in a discussion with PeopleForBikes members on the topic of battery recycling.

Simultaneously, Call2Recycle began developing a similar program for the Canadian market that commenced in January 2021. The early learning from what was being built for Canada became the foundation for the new collaboration with PeopleForBikes in spring 2021.

Not only a first for e-bikes, the program represents the first of any electric transportation sector to unite under
a single battery recycling solution in North America. The initiative garnered the commitment of more than 40 bike industry leaders from 20 PeopleForBikes member companies, who collaborated as a sustainability task force and electric bicycle committee to design the program with Call2Recycle.

The new e-bike battery recycling program is voluntary and funded by participating e-bike manufacturers, and it’s designed to make the battery recycling program safe and seamless for both retailers and riders. These companies will pay into the industry fund based on the number of batteries placed into the market. The funds collected will be used to administer the e-bike battery collection and recycling program, including recycling kits, transportation and logistics, safety materials and rider education.

Starting in February 2022, e-bike retailers can begin enrolling with Call2Recycle as a participating collection site at no cost. Riders can begin recycling their e-bike batteries in the summer of 2022 where they purchased their e-bike, or locate a drop-off site near them using the locator tool on either Call2Recycle’s or PeopleForBikes’ website.

Call2Recycle handles the management of battery collection, transportation and recycling, while participating retailers will be provided with everything needed to safely collect these e-bike batteries, which includes retail employee training. A widespread rider awareness campaign will also be launched in fall 2022.

The average lifespan of e-bike batteries is about five years. The next-gen battery processors in the recycling process means that roughly 95% percent of battery material can be recovered.

Industry analysts estimate that more than 12 million electric bikes will be sold in the USA between 2020 and 2030 — in 2020, an estimated 600,000 e-bikes were sold there. Call2Recycle expects to collect and recycle 15% of the e-bike batteries coming out of the current market, growing to 65% by 2030.

For more information, visit www.call2recycle.org and www.peopleforbikes.org