Here be Monsters!

In the quest for high power batteries to provide us with more convenience in our electrical devices, humanity has embarked on a high-speed journey, pushing off the tarmac, onto the tracks and now careering over unmarked territory. Like the seafaring charts of old, the empty places are filled with depictions of horrible beasts and warnings, stating “here be monsters”. 

Let’s explain this further….

Irrespective of where we derive electrical energy, it must be stored if we cannot use it immediately. Batteries are used for this purpose and there are many different types of battery that have been developed to meet the demands of their application. When a battery needs to be compact, offer high power, and be fast-charging, the designers generally turn to lithium battery technology. This type of battery is ubiquitous in disposable products -– power tools, EVs, mobile phones and far too many others to mention.

Because lithium chemistry batteries have a high-power density, even a partially charged battery has enormous potential to cause damage if that energy is uncontrollably released. Mechanical damage to the battery can initiate this so it is vital that products containing these batteries are disposed of correctly. Every day there are fires caused by batteries at recycling centres, in street rubbish bins and in refuse collection vehicles. The close proximity of other fuel items often leads to these fires becoming major incidents. 

Another cause of battery fires occurs when the power within the battery is not safely managed,  often because of due to it being incorrectly manufactured, installed or charged. When those safety measures fail or are absent, a battery effectively turns into a self-igniting incendiary. A lithium battery fire is very difficult to extinguish and the chemical breakdown results in huge clouds of dense toxic smoke being emitted instantaneously. The effects in a small space are very frightening and extremely dangerous.

Here be the monsters!

The battery or its chemistry is not actually the monster; it is the unscrupulous manufacturers of the batteries and the chargers saving a few pennies in the design of the monitoring circuitry, reducing the integrity of the mechanical protection, or quite frankly, not caring that they are making every penny of profit they can by ignoring both moral and legal requirements to provide safe products. 

They are not the only monsters. There are the monsters who tear the planet apart and provide the raw materials to feed this frenzy of battery power. There are the monsters who turn a blind eye to the damage being done in the name of progress. There are the monsters who sell products, not fit for purpose, to those who feel they cannot do without them. There the are monsters who mark products with compliance symbols to deceive everyone else in to thinking products are as safe as they can be. 

Sadly, this long list of monsters is ever increasing because the ways and means of trapping and neutralising them has not developed as quickly as the monsters have exploited the opportunity to thrive. 

Some of these things we cannot do much about but there are some monsters we can be alert to, and keep out of our lives. These include:

– Challenging our trust that everything we buy is safe, especially if the item is suspiciously low value, is an unknown brand or comes from a drop-shipped source obtained online.

– Considering the reasons behind the rules and regulations we are asked to comply with. Although these can appear frustrating, some regulations really do make sense, especially about recycling and those in user guides. 

– Correctly disposing of battery powered products at recycling centres or drop off points.

– Only charging battery products while you can monitor them. 

If we all follow these simple rules, these monsters become far less dangerous to us and our planet. 

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What happens to E-Waste?

Electronic products are all around us today. In fact if you’re reading this article then you’re looking at one right now. But what happens when these products reach the end of their life, or are made obsolete by newer tech? This is a question with two outcomes, good news and bad news. We would all agree that we absolutely must do something to deal with E-Waste. The bad news is that the results of that process often cause damage we do not see or choose to ignore. The way we deal with our E-Waste must be something we are all made aware of so we really understand the true cost of that new smart phone or TV.

Products like smart phones, IT equipment and home appliances are advancing so rapidly in their capabilities that they become redundant within months of their launch. Many homes and businesses are disposing of old tech products and the question is what can be done with these container loads of E-Waste?

E-Waste contains many valuable materials which can be recovered, such as gold, silver, copper, tin and palladium. The process for recycling electronic goods is similar to other more general recycling processes, following a path of collection, transportation, sorting and separation. Waste is collected and sent to a processing plant where items are manually sorted and disassembled, with parts like batteries removed and sent to specialist facilities.

Items that can’t be dismantled efficiently are shredded into smaller pieces and then spread out on conveyor belts using a shaking process. A high power magnet then sorts out the ferrous metals and further mechanical processes separate the metals from non-metals. A water separation process then divides the remaining plastic and glass materials.

Glass from cathode ray tubes (CRTs) commonly found in televisions and monitors contain more hazardous materials like lead, barium and phosphor. Processing these items is more complex, with extra washing and sorting steps to remove oxides and phosphors and to separate leaded and non-leaded glass.

Smelting is used to recover metals like gold, silver, tin and copper from PCBs and nickel, steel, cadmium and cobalt from batteries.

This is the good news part of the story because it results in a reasonable percentage of resources recovered. The bad news is that the predicted 50 million metric tons of E-Waste produced this year alone will create a big problem despite much of it being capable of being repaired or reused. The majority of it ends up in landfill or is incinerated, E-Waste is often legally and illegally exported to countries like China, India and Nigeria due to absence of more rigorous regulation. Once there, toxic materials like lead, arsenic and mercury leach into the water course, soil and air to become a huge long term problem in the environment affecting plants, animals and humans. The residents of Guiyu in China (an area known for recycling E-Waste) have the highest reported level of lead and dioxin found in people globally.

Out of sight and out of mind is not the way to deal with this problem. There is no easy answer but the majority of us are buyers of electronic products and we need to demand products that are easier to recycle and made with reclaimed material. Only then will product designers, not accountants get to set the design brief for how products should end their life.

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