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The Explosive Problem With Recycling Phones, Tablets and Other Gadgets: They Literally Catch Fire. (washingtonpost.com)
What happens to gadgets when you're done with them? Too often, they explode. From a report: Around the world, garbage trucks and recycling centers are going up in flames. The root of the problem: volatile lithium-ion batteries sealed inside our favorite electronics from Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and more. They're not only dangerous but also difficult to take apart -- making e-waste less profitable, and contributing to a growing recycling crisis. These days, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are in smartphones, tablets, laptops, ear buds, toys, power tools, scooters, hoverboards and e-cigarettes. For all their benefits at making our devices slim, powerful and easy to recharge, lithium-ion batteries have some big costs. They contain Cobalt, often mined in inhumane circumstances in places like the Congo. And when crushed, punctured, ripped or dropped, lithium-ion batteries can produce what the industry euphemistically calls a "thermal event." It happens because these batteries short circuit when the super-thin separator between their positive and negative parts gets breached.
Old devices end up in trouble when we throw them in the trash, stick them in the recycling bin, or even responsibly bring them to an e-waste center. There isn't official data on these fires, but the anecdotal evidence is stark. Since the spring of 2018 alone, batteries have been suspected as the cause of recycling fires in New York, Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Indiana, Idaho, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand. In California, a recent survey of waste management facilities found 83 percent had at least one fire over the last two years, of which 40 percent were caused by lithium-ion batteries.
Old devices end up in trouble when we throw them in the trash, stick them in the recycling bin, or even responsibly bring them to an e-waste center. There isn't official data on these fires, but the anecdotal evidence is stark. Since the spring of 2018 alone, batteries have been suspected as the cause of recycling fires in New York, Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Indiana, Idaho, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand. In California, a recent survey of waste management facilities found 83 percent had at least one fire over the last two years, of which 40 percent were caused by lithium-ion batteries.
This problem is easy to solve, make a law that requires all batteries to be removable.
...who needs WMDs to take down a plane? /h or /s, pick one
ALl you need is a bunch of old tech stacked together with a bad battery...and stand back?
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
How would this really solve the problem? I saw people throwing old batteries in the trash on the regular, for as long as I can remember.
Are all "thermal events" fires? I've dealt with overheating lithium-ion batteries, but outside of incredibly serious mishandling they aren't very wont to catch fire. "Thermal event" puts me in mind of Walmart calling spilled milk a "biohazard incident".
A warehouse a couple of miles away from my house caught fire a few years ago. It was a cell phone recycling center, where they pull cell phones apart and send out the components to other companies to recycle (plastic, glass, metal, batteries, etc...)
It caught fire late one night. It took 8 trucks from five different cities to contain it. They didn't bother trying to put it out, they just kept water on it to prevent it from spreading to other buildings. After about five hours the fire ran out of fuel and died out. The warehouse was completely gone. All that was left was a square pool of metal. The heat was so intense it melted the asphalt of the parking lot. I heard you could see where some of the firefighters were standing as it flowed around their boots.
Anyone using these devices is part of the problem. True recycling doesn't exist for electronics.
Some numbers on how serious this problem really is would have been nice.
As an anecdote, I've been working at an outfit that recycles electronics here in the US, for about 3 years now. We've never had a fire from lithium batteries or any other battery.
can produce what the industry euphemistically calls a "thermal event."
what they are describing is not an euphemism... it's a literal... never in the history of the world has there been a better case for the use of the word "literal." It is literally a "thermal event."
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
Even better : modulate the already existing recycling tax on new devices with the degree of difficulty of the recycling !
aaaaaaa
>> I saw people throwing old batteries in the trash on the regular
Hanging those people solves the problem.
aaaaaaa
1/2 a ton of Tesla battery -- per car.
I hope Elon has thought up a process (other than launching them to Mars) for properly recycling all those Tesla batteries.
put the liability where it belongs with the manufacturer/seller and let the legal system place a price on the issue. Once that is done the market may deal with the issue without regulation being required.
;)
Path of least government.
Just my 2 cents
So, what the article is saying is that the smart phone industry, with their non-repairable form factor and replaceable batteries, is a dumpster fire?
for affordable li-ion battery recycling.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
All the solutions in the comments will for the most part ignore the very fundamental issue that maybe these devices should not be considered disposable.
Our society seems to be shifting more and more to the disposable and away from the durable good. Why should I be buying new computers and cell phone every 2 years? Used to be you bought a PC, paid like 6K for inflation adjusted and you ran it for 6 or seven years! Sure that meant that you did not always have the latest and greatest. It was perfectly normal back in the day for Joe to have i386-DX20 on his desk still while Bob unboxed his brand new Pentium-60. These machines were worlds apart in performance but WFW3.11 booted up just fine on either. Both were fully supported.
Most of the App store isn't a choice for an 2012 iPhone 4s today.
Maybe the question to be asking is why can't I pull some screws off the back of iPhone; pry up the A10 CPU and install a A12 "over drive" or swap out the memory chips, replace the flash module user data lives on with a bigger one?
Sure this would mean probably thicker more expensive phone but we could make a mobile that has 10 year life span rather than 1.5 - 4(max).
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
So why do they include Apple in their list?
Apple will take back any Apple product and recycle it, for free.
Require all other companies that sell products with batteries to do the same.
Doesn't that make WAY more sense than what you are proposing? How would your idea help any, when the device would just be thrown away with the battery still in it - in fact even worse, it would be thrown away with spare batteries!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"inhumane places like the Congo" in the article is a lie. The Congo isn't inhumane. Mining companies there exploit people with inhumane working conditions.
Other-ing by saying the place is bad, instead of some actors (who are, let's be clear, international mining companies), is gross and reveals a gross attitude towards Africa.