U.S. Energy Department Announces $14 Million to Expand Battery Recycling

The U.S. Energy Department has selected two U.S. retail companies, Staples and Batteries Plus, to receive about $7 million each for a large-scale consumer battery recycling program. The program will create over 1,000 drop-off sites for consumers to turn in old batteries and battery-containing devices and reduce e-waste. The recycling project seeks to recover old batteries from this e-waste and extract critical materials such as lithium.

DOE’s Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains Office will oversee the program. So far, battery recycling initiatives in the U.S. have yielded considerable results. Last year, nearly 175,000 tons of material were reclaimed in intermediate processing facilities, according to the department, with plans to handle nearly 198,000 additional tons in the next few years. As of 2023, the U.S. had sufficient recycling capacity to reclaim 35,500 tons of battery materials and facilities planned for the next two to four years can reclaim another 76,000 tons.

Since 2020, the Biden administration has taken significant efforts to boost the domestic battery supply chain. In 2022,  the American Battery Materials initiative was launched to boost a secure supply for critical materials like lithium and graphite. Last November, the department announced $3.5 billion from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act towards domestic battery manufacturing.

More recently, the Biden administration ramped up tariffs on Chinese lithium-ion battery imports. The tariff rate on lithium-ion EV batteries increases from 7.5 percent to 25 percent in 2024. The same increase is applied for tariffs in 2024 on lithium-ion battery parts from China.