Global Battery Alliance forms to fight growing waste of precious materials.

Waste is at an all-time high in the technology industry when it comes to battery production, consumption and throwaway.

To stop the waste in its tracks, some of the world’s largest business leaders in manufacturing, energy, and technology have come together to fight the careless expenditure of batteries that has begun to run rampant.

At the 2017 World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2017, the Global Battery Alliance was launched. This Alliance contains a combination of international organizations and NGOs planning to “put an end to the social and environmental impacts driving the growing trade in batteries for smartphones, gadgets, electric vehicles and renewable energy storage systems” (sustainablebrand.com 2017).

Meeting the demands of consumer’s expectations of batteries used in their technology, while transitioning to a less impactful supply chain, is no easy task.

“Analysts have estimated that a 12-fold increase in battery capacity is needed to meet growing consumer demands and the transition to a low-carbon economy. The market is expected to reach $100 billion by 2025 and batteries installed in homes and businesses will account for 57 percent of global energy storage capacity by 2040” (sustainablebrands.com 2017).

In order to meet these demands, battery recycling must become a more streamlined-circular process. The current method for throwaway contains little to no strategy for recirculation, whatsoever. Stated by Dominic Waughray, Head of Public-Private Partnerships for the World Economic Forum, “All the electronic waste we discarded in 2014 was worth $52 billion. It contained 300 tons of gold and significant amounts of silver and palladium”.

If the production and consumption of batteries containing such valuable elements continues at the rate it is today, the world’s supply chain and the environment are going to be in for a rude awakening. The saddest part of this all is, the production of these valuable minerals that make up our smart phones comes at the expense of child labor and individuals with lesser socio-economic means.

The Global Battery Alliance’s presence couldn’t have materialized at a more critical time. 

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