The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Electric bikes and scooters: the second life of batteries

2021-11-09T05:25:46.339Z


FIGARO DEMAIN - While sales are exploding, the recycling and reconditioning sectors are getting organized.


He sold 515,000 bikes and 640,000 electric scooters in 2020. Over one year, the increase is 29% for the former and 34% for the latter.

The question of the treatment of used batteries and their toxic materials is therefore starting to arise.

"The first green gesture in the management of waste would be not to produce it,"

recalls David Turmel, director of operations at Corepile, an eco-organization for recycling batteries.

In order not to pollute, it would therefore unfortunately be necessary to be satisfied with the good old mechanical bikes, without electric assistance.

Otherwise, solutions to limit the carbon footprint of the after-life of these products are developing.

See also

Bikes, scooters, scooters… Which two-wheeler is right for you?

Before recycling,

"you can recondition an electrically assisted bicycle or scooter battery two or three times, and thus extend its longevity by ten years",

explains Anne-Sophie Caistiker, founder of Doctibike. The company, which specializes in the reconditioning of these products, assures that the repair allows about 85% of the battery cells to be preserved. With the enthusiasm for these soft mobility, the activity of the company exploded:

“We treat 15,000 batteries per year. This figure doubles every year. "

So much waste avoided. Self-service fleets are also interested in these topics. Smovengo, operator of Vélib ', is working on a virtuous economy system to repair and reuse used batteries while Lime is working on a

“Tailor-made battery, the cells of which can be individually removed, reconditioned and reused”.

Repair is therefore popular.

But the batteries always end up not being able to be repaired, and must be recycled at the end of their life.

Sustainability of the sector

Retailers in the sector have therefore organized themselves as a recycling channel thanks to the cooperation of the Sport & Cycle Union and Corepile, these batteries cannot be disposed of with conventional batteries. When they are out of use, the eco-organism collects them, processes them - by separating the different elements: plastic shell, electronic card, cables, cells - and recycles 65% of the materials, which are then used in various industries. The rest is buried or cremated. 64 tonnes of electric vehicle batteries followed this path in 2020.

“We should be at 1,000 tonnes in 2028,”

predicts David Turmel, COO of Corepile. To guarantee the sustainability of the sector, recycling capacities will have to keep pace with the increase in sales.

Read also

How 100% cycling is essential in the heart of cities

But consumers still have to make progress.

"By comparing current recycling and sales five to ten years ago - the average lifespan of a battery - it is estimated that about 15% of the batteries that could be recycled,

" we say. at Corepile.

Because the responsibility for depositing batteries in collection points lies with cyclists.

For Virgile Caillet, general delegate of the Union sport & cycle,

“without them, no recycling channel”.

Le Figaro



Society, health, environment, education, energy

»Discover the actors and initiatives of change

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-11-09

You may like

Life/Entertain 2024-02-18T18:10:39.388Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T11:55:29.801Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.