Recycling old batteries for laptops, garden tools and other devices is getting a funding boost from the Biden administration.

The Department of Energy announced this week that it will invest $14 million to provide more than 1,000 battery collection points around the country.

What You Need To Know

  • The Department of Energy announced this week that it will invest $14 million to provide more than 1,000 battery collection points around the country

  • The retailers Staples and Batteries Plus will each receive $7 million to install portable consumer battery recycling drop-offs at their stores

  • Just 5% of lithium-ion batteries are recycled in the United States

  • Extracting minerals from old batteries will provide domestic industries with more materials to make new batteries or other products and help with national security, the DOE said

The retailers Staples and Batteries Plus will each receive $7 million to install portable consumer battery recycling drop-offs at their stores.

Making it easier to recycle batteries from consumer products will allow the U.S. “to reuse the critical minerals we would normally source form China for new clean energy manufacturing,” Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement.

Extracting minerals from old batteries will provide domestic industries with more materials to make new batteries or other products and help with national security, she added.

Batteries for everything from cell phones, laptops, vacuum cleaners and smart watches include re-usable minerals and materials including nickel, lithium and graphite. China is the world’s largest producer of graphite and the top processer and refiner of lithium.

Just 5% of lithium-ion batteries are currently recycled in the United States, according to Chemical Abstracts Service.