Source: Fietsmarkt

Recent research by Dutch electrical waste recycling specialists, Stichting OPEN, shows that many people in the Netherlands find it difficult to find a drop-off location for depleted e-bike batteries, with only 20% of e-bike owners having ever replaced or discarded a battery.

The Netherlands now has over 5 million e-bikes, with the transport mode firmly embedded in the country’s culture. Despite a high level of knowledge among e-bike users about how to safely dispose of a battery, 46% indicated in the Stichting OPEN survey of over 1,000 e-bike owners that they do not know where to do so, or saying that more drop-off locations are required.

The lack of recycling to date can partly be explained because of e-bike batteries’ average lifespan of around five years, and the fact they are often still functioning when a bike is replaced. However, the number of discarded batteries is expected to rise sharply in the next few years.

The survey shows that, of those e-bike owners who have handed in batteries for recycling, have done so either at recycling centres or bicycle shops. The bike shop in particular is viewed as a logical collection point, in tandem with the addressing of technical problems or bike replacement, and consumers expecting that the shop has the capacity to handle onward processing and recycling.

As well as bike shops, consumers also view the bike manufacturers and municipalities as the primary parties responsible for encouraging and facilitating correct disposal methods and behaviour. Unfortunately, there are still a small group of consumers who dispose of batteries incorrectly, for instance including them with residential waste, presenting several risks, including fire hazards.

According to Stichting OPEN, there is a clear opportunity to improve the provision of information to consumers, as well as expanding the number of drop-off points for e-bike batteries. Currently there are almost 2,000 collection points across the Netherlands, including those in the Wecycle network.