BENTONVILLE, Ark. (BRAIN) — The industry's first U.S. e-bike battery recycling program nears a notable milestone seven months after it was established.
The program with nonprofit collection and recycling company Call2Recycle and endorsed by PeopleForBikes now has nearly 1,500 trained collection sites since beginning March 1. From the 1,490 sites, 2,379 individual e-bike batteries — 15,365 pounds — have been collected and recycled as of Wednesday.
Troy Jones, Specialized Bicycles' social and environmental responsibility manager, attended the SHIFT '22 three-day conference here that wrapped up Thursday and noted the program's accomplishments to Wednesday's participants.
"The e-mobility supply chains are not without their challenges," Jones told BRAIN in between sessions. "It's important that we obtain those materials ethically and environmentally responsible but also keep them in use. It's been important in and of itself, but also it's an example of what the industry can accomplish together. That's what really floats my boat."
Jones, who co-chairs the PeopleForBikes' Sustainability Working Group and the Supply Chain and Social and Environmental Responsibility track, said more can be done to get increased participation.
"The Call2Recycle folks are especially focused on those brands that have signed the letter-of- intent that indicated they were interested but have not, for whatever reason, executed," he said. "So we're very much focused on those, and some of them have been late to adopt for valid reasons, like a small company with a lot to do, and it's always on the too-hard pile."
Jones said Specialized has and is willing to help those companies organize their recycling efforts.
"We actually have brokered a conversation with a brand, and we're doing everything we can to help companies that want to do it, so we're sharing our experience with them. Like how to operationalize this. We've done this with a number of suppliers. They are small companies that may not have the resources. How do you go about this? What were the challenges? So we're trying to provide Call2Recycle and PeopleForBikes all the support we can on that because it's in our best interest."
The program is now supported by 35 OEMs representing 51 brands. A full list can be found here.
