Solana Beach Eco Rotary will be sponsoring a lithium battery collection event at the Multi District Conference April 25 at the Gaylord Hotel.
This event has two purposes:
1. To collect lithium batteries. Why? The largest source of lithium and cobalt are in the junk drawers of America. Rotary can help ‘mine’ those drawers.
- To keep lithium batteries out of landfills where they do not belong.
- To create a safe, domestic supply chain of needed metals for electronics.
- To support US manufacturers.
- To reduce the need for mining the earth.
2. To demonstrate a simple but impactful environmental project that you can take home to your club. ESRAG (Environmental Sustainability RAG) has partnered with Redwood Recyclers to create an easy website to successfully complete this project. See below:
How to Host a Battery Collection Event.’ https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/rotary-toolkit/.
The website has step-by-step instructions and an advertising toolkit. Rotarians will be at our club table at the Gaylord on Saturday to take your batteries and questions.
Great idea, right? How will this collection work?
1. Start collecting your lithium batteries now. You can collect from your friends, family and club members and give them to a member who is coming to the Multi-District conference. Here are good examples of what we are accepting:
- laptops, tablets, cellphones, hearing aids, key fobs, wireless headphones, earbuds, small Bluetooth speakers and baby monitors, smartwatches, electric toothbrushes and shavers, Dyson Vacuum batteries, and loose lithium-ion or nickel metal hydride batteries. Because of constraints from the hotel, we are taking only rechargeable batteries/ devices that are small enough to fit in a shoebox or laptop size.
2. Bring these items to our club table on Saturday April 25. We will safely package them and mail them off to Redwood for recycling. We will send you the total of pounds collected after the conference.
3. Please clear your devices of personal data. Before dropping off a personal device, you should sign out of all your accounts, remove the SIM card and perform a factory reset to remove personal data. Once received, Redwood ensures that any remaining personal information is completely destroyed but you should still make sure your devices are clean before dropping off.
Here are some instructions to help you:
- How to factory reset your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support
- Reset your Android device to factory settings - Android Help
4. What NOT to bring. Redwood won’t accept e-waste like flat screen TVs, printers, copiers, circuit boards, chargers, accessories or anything that requires a plugged in cord to operate. They also do not accept single use or alkaline batteries. We will only accept small wireless devices and rechargeable batteries. Please check your items and dispose of alkaline batteries and electronics properly. FYI: Some e-waste is accepted at Staples stores. Here’s a list: https://www.staples.com/stores/recycling?isVF=true.
5. What does Redwood do with the products? Redwood can recover more than 95% of materials like nickel, cobalt, copper, aluminum, lithium and graphite in the batteries. These go directly back into the supply chain without a middleman to make more batteries and energy storage products. This is a great example of circular economy.
Solana Beach Eco Rotary thanks you for your donations and hopes to inspire your own club event. You will get another letter like this when you register for the Gaylord event and a reminder a week before. The letter will have frequently asked questions that will clarify the project a bit more.
Please do not hesitate to call, text (619-985-2999) or email (jenny@jparkermd.net) if you have suggestions or questions.