In prison for one year, Lundgren asked, "What's the next field that needs re-use?" He decided it was batteries. He made business plans for repurposing used batteries and manufacturing new, more environmentally friendly ones.
"About 100 million new car batteries are made each year," Eric told me. "87 percent of them are manufactured in China with toxic processes. On average, each battery lasts two years then goes to a junkyard. This disposal is also toxic, because it leaches heavy metals into land and groundwater. Still, we throw EV batteries away faster than you can imagine."
Released from prison in 2019, Lundgren launched BigBattery.com. Annually, the company's 143 employees process more than 41 million pounds of discarded electronics. They repurpose half of the U.S.'s discarded lithium-ion EV batteries--$50 million worth--to last another 15 or 20 years for portable generators and emergency and solar applications. On a weekly basis, BigBattery.com diverts half of a gigawatt hour of unused batteries from being destroyed, slows harmful chemicals from going into landfills, prevents burned e-waste from leaching carcinogens into the air--and reaps profits.
Environmentally-friendlier batteries
Another Lundgren company, BatteryEvo.com, makes new batteries from lithium, iron and phosphate (LFP).
Before telling me about LFPs, Vernon Stratton, Lundgren's Business Development Director, steps in here, first to clarify that batteries do not generate power; they store it. We use batteries for stationary applications--like data centers, cell sites, generators, solar PV systems; we use them in mobile situations like wireless phones, laptops, cars and golf carts. Then, Stratton describes different kinds of batteries and their recycling value. "Lead-acid batteries are good at short bursts of power--like supplying an electrical charge to a car's ignition system. They're not good at storing energy for a long time." The lead in a "dead" lead-acid battery can be recycled indefinitely. But ingesting or inhaling even trace amounts of lead can cause children's IQ deficits and attention-related behavior problems.2 A 2016 report from Pure Earth identified lead-acid battery recycling as the world's #1 toxic pollution source.3
"NMC batteries," Stratton continues, "made from nickel, manganese and cobalt, are energy dense. Most e-vehicle (EV) manufacturers use them." Lundgren and Stratton do not like NMCs: human rights violations abound when miners extract cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mining and smelting nickel are energy intensive and result in greenhouse gas emissions, habitat destruction and contamination of air, water and soil.
While old NMC batteries still have 80% of their usable capacity, recyclers will grind them to black mass, sell the nickel and cobalt to make new batteries, send the rest to the landfill--and charge for the process.
Lundgren considers LFPs the most environmentally-friendly batteries available. They can last 22 years, four times the capacity of lead-acid batteries. They're less flammable and less expensive than other batteries; and they're good at long-term storage and delivery. "The iron and phosphate are prevalent materials," he says. "They're not evil."
On the other hand, LFPs use lithium as a catalyst. Producing one ton of lithium uses 500,000 gallons of water.4
As the EV industry transitions to LFPs, it will render traditional battery recycling--which is costly and environmentally taxing--obsolete, because iron and phosphate are prevalent and easy to acquire. Lundgren's method of paying for old batteries, repurposing them and keeping them out of landfills as long as possible, may gain steam. "While a ten-year-old battery may no longer serve a 3800-pound car," Eric says, "we can repurpose it to power a clinic in Africa or India or golf cart. We can keep it working for another decade."
With each sale, BatteryEvo.com provides a shipping label for customers to return the battery when it's no longer usable to ensure that the batteries will not end up in landfills. "We send the returned batteries to an R2 recycler who charges us to extract and repurpose each commodity," Lundgren says. "This represents 4-6% of our net profit. Because we think about end-of-life at the product's start, we can afford to do the right thing."
Reduce, re-use, recycle
When asked about the slogan, Reduce, re-use, recycle, Lundgren says that reducing is the best option: "We break the bonds of consumerism, and buy only what is necessary." But Lundgren does not see U.S. Americans reducing their consumption. "Manufacturers pummel the concept of the newest and greatest to create 'needs' for people to buy more, use and throw away."
Re-use, he explains, means giving your old laptop to a neighbor. Or, if it breaks, you find a way to re-use its workable parts.
Recycling means shredding or melting commodities and turning them into re-usable ingots. These are energy-intensive, toxic, expensive processes. If you care about ecology, recycling is your last resort.
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