Macalester College charges ahead on battery recycling research

We are just getting the ball rolling on this three-year project. In the first phase, we've been focused on studying the barriers to safe battery disposal and recycling. This has included interviewing MN Pollution Control Agency and county hazardous waste experts around the state, meeting with industry leaders, and collecting nearly 1,000 public surveys at the recent Minnesota State Fair.

We asked respondents about their battery knowledge, recycling behaviors, and the barriers they experience (access, cost, information). Once we analyze this data and our expert interviews, we will have a much better sense of how to develop our public outreach campaign. This campaign includes a new exhibit for the 2025 Minnesota State Fair, the launch of a REcharge Academy Battery Institute for K-12 teachers, and the design of a GIS Story Map that depicts how battery recycling works.

The energy revolution is all about storage. That storage happens through batteries, which are now largely based on lithium-ion chemistries. Li-ion batteries are a very important part of our CollectED project because they are both dangerous when disposed of improperly and if recycled properly can be a vital source of critical minerals for future applications.

An electric vehicle battery, for example, is made up of thousands of rechargeable lithium-ion cells connected together to form the battery pack. Whether we are talking about solar batteries or an EV battery, it's very important to find out how to recycle it safely. You can learn where to recycle these batteries by visiting the Earth 911 database and Call2Recycle.