University of Rhode Island students Rylan McCallum and Ryan Andreozzi turned a class project into a campaign to recycle electronics that use lithium batteries.
The idea for recycling electronics came from a discussion about how marketing electric vehicles is misleading, according to McCallum. People are led to believe that the vehicles are a better alternative to gas-powered vehicles, but in reality, they affect the health of employees. Also, it’s energy-intensive with their carbon emissions, impacting the environment.
“Just doing research, like I did immediately, I found out that 70% of toxic waste has made up a small amount of [debris] so I think that’s a pretty staggering number,” McCallum said. “So I think a lot of people just aren’t informed about how much of a problem this is, and how many electronics that use lithium batteries are harmful to the environment.”
Electronic recycling reduces waste collection at landfills that are filling up, according to Andreozzi. It’s also a safer alternative because there have been reports around the world about electronics catching fire and causing hazards.
URI already recycles electronics waste, but it’s not publicly available yet, according to McCallum. Old personal computers, refrigerators and everything that belongs to the university is recycled. With their campaign, they’re hopeful that electronics from outside the community will be included as well.
At the beginning, the main focus was on electric vehicles until they realized it was a hard topic for a small campaign, according to McCallum. So, they pivoted to lithium-ion batteries, as they are used in most electronic devices owned by college students. Knowing that some students owned older devices they no longer use, they found it applicable as they could donate them.
The campaign can greatly impact the URI community, according to Andreozzi. Donated devices will help people in need of them and influence the URI administration to implement an official recycling center for this idea. Andreozzi and McCallum created a petition to collect enough data to persuade the administration to move forward with the plan.
With the hope that they get enough signatures for their petition, there would be a donation drop-off center at URI, according to McCallum. This would be a station where people can donate their old devices that would go to an electronic recycling facility in Rhode Island. That way, people don’t need to drive, especially students who live on campus.
Gaining public attention for the cause is crucial for their campaign, according to McCallum. Carbon emissions used to mine the batteries, the destruction of land to resource them, the unethical working conditions in the factories are horrible for the environment. If the URI community can reduce the amount of lithium batteries that are produced, the decrease in numbers would improve the environment.
“We’d be able to persuade the URI populace because it aligns with the university values of sustainability and environmentalism,” Andreozzi said. “In terms of waste management, the batteries, you know, everybody uses a device, especially students.”
If people want to donate their old devices, they can be in any condition, according to McCallum. Completely broken devices will be recycled and ones in working condition will be reused and given to others in need.
“I think something that big would be really beautiful to see that this is something people care about enough to let it get to that point and become something that could actually be important in school,” McCallum said. “I would love to see the success of it, and to see something that started so small become something large.”
