Dive Brief:

• IT asset disposal and electronics recycling company ERI has opened its first alkaline battery recycling plant in Plainfield, Indiana.
• The plant uses a proprietary technology meant to recycle “millions of pounds” of alkaline batteries each year, according to the company. The plant is co-located within ERI’s existing, 315,000-square-foot e-scrap recycling and ITAD facility.
• The plant is just one of several additional alkaline battery recycling plants the company plans to open throughout the U.S. starting in 2025, ERI said in a recent news release.

Dive Insight:

ERI, which describes itself as the largest fully integrated ITAD company in the U.S., sees the dedicated battery recycling plant as a “natural progression” for the company and a complement to its existing services. Electronics are one of the fastest growing waste streams in the country, according to the U.S. EPA, and with that comes more battery-containing devices. 

ERI already offers battery management services for lithium-ion batteries, but the new recycling plant is its first meant specifically to recycle alkaline batteries. ERI says it can arrange logistics for and accept alkaline batteries at its eight locations in Arizona, California, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas and Washington. ERI says it serves “every zip code” in the U.S. 

The recycling process “produces zero waste products, is circular economy focused and yields clean commodity outputs — creating a truly circular ecosystem,” said CEO John Shegerian in a statement. 

The move follows ERI’s recent efforts to “recalibrate” its business to meet increasing business and logistics demands. Last year, ERI announced plans to open more facilities and closed its Colorado location in favor of moving some of its Southwestern services to Arizona. In 2021, Closed Loop’s Leadership Fund, part of its private equity group, announced that it had made a “significant strategic investment” in the company. 

The Illinois recycling facility’s opening comes a few months after ERI announced it would provide consumer battery recycling services for office supply store Staples. In April, Staples announced its drop-off recycling services program, which accepts a range of technology, would now also accept rechargeable and single-use alkaline batteries at about 1,000 stores.

“With this addition of battery recycling, we’re working to help prevent nearly 3 billion batteries from entering landfills each year,” said Brian Coupland, senior vice president of merchandising at Staples, in a statement.

Battery recycling has become a major priority for the U.S. Department of Energy, which has funded several battery recycling innovation projects in recent years in an effort to shore up a domestic supply of critical materials. 

In April, the DOE announced $62 million in consumer battery recycling grants, including a $4.8 million project for ERI to develop an online educational platform to help consumers identify recycling sites. 

In July, Staples, along with Batteries Plus, each received $7 million in DOE funding to install a total of about 1,000 new portable consumer battery recycling collection bins at their stores.

Several states have recently passed extended producer responsibility laws for batteries, another sign of growth in the battery recycling sector. 

This story first appeared in the Waste Dive: Recycling newsletter. Sign up for the weekly emails here.