Non-replaceable batteries bad for the environment and consumers

By li [dot] strandberg [at] iiiee [dot] lu [dot] se (Li Strandberg) - published 7 December 2021

A charging cell phone with cable. Photo.

There is a fast-growing trend to design smart electronics with custom-sized batteries that are embedded into devices with glue and solder. As a result, repairing, reusing, repurposing, and recycling batteries and the devices they power has become increasingly difficult and sometimes simply impossible. The EU battery regulation can address these issues and improve how we produce and consume batteries and smart devices such as consumer electronics and light electric vehicles.

The environmental gains will not be insignificant. If by 2030 every new phone and tablet in the EU has easy to remove and replace batteries, reductions in carbon emissions would be 674,834 tons CO2e per year, which corresponds to a reduction by 30% compared to business as usual. This is equivalent to removing 456,603 passenger vehicles from the roads for one year or providing electricity to 595,293 EU homes for one year.

The report is written by the European Environmental Bureau, the Right to Repair campaign and researchers from the IIIEE; Mariana Lopez Davila, Jessika Luth Richter and Carl Dalhammar.

Read more on European Environmental Bureau's website https://eeb.org/non-replaceable-batteries-are-bad-news-for-the-environm…;

Read the report

Article in Sydsvenskan (in Swedish) Krav på enkelt batteribyte – för klimatets skull – Sydsvenskan