Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub is expanding across the river to Northern Kentucky. The three-and-a-half-year-old nonprofit works with local fire departments to establish drop-off points for lithium-ion battery recycling. When disposed of incorrectly, lithium-ion batteries pose a dangerous threat to anyone nearby.
The Northern Kentucky fire stations taking part in this program are Fort Wright, Ludlow and Campbell County Fire District in Cold Spring.
Fort Wright Fire Chief Stephen Schewe has been worried about the dangers of lithium-ion batteries for a while now. In September 2023, he presented the Fort Wright City Council with some of his concerns about electric vehicle fires. He was worried about whether the Fort Wright Fire Department had the equipment to fight those fires.
Lithium-ion batteries differ from “regular” batteries in that they are rechargeable and more “energy dense.” While that makes for convenient devices, lithium-ion batteries can be devastating when damaged. They burn hotter, they burn longer, and they release dangerous chemicals. Electric vehicles, along with many laptops and cell phones, use these batteries.
When a product with a lithium-ion battery is disposed of improperly, it can combust.
Rumpke knows this very well. If a lithium-ion battery is left in a regular trash can, it can be compressed and damaged in the sanitation truck or at the trash-processing facility. Fires increased in their facilities, which presented a danger to their workers and their equipment. In July of 2023, they partnered with Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub to help get these batteries to the right places.
Brittany Gray, the off-site collections and neighborhood ambassador coordinator at Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub, took on this project, funded by a grant from Rumpke.
“We started with drop-off days at the [Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse] Hub,” Gray said. “When we expanded to community-based drop-off, we thought ‘who better than the fire department to handle this?’”
They started with five fire stations in Cincinnati: St. Bernard, Hyde Park, Colerain Township, Green Township and Lunken Airport. In the spring of 2024, Rumpke renewed its funding, so Gray was able to expand the program.
“I felt really strongly about taking this program across the river to our Northern Kentucky communities,” Gray said.
The process works like this:
Anyone can bring a lithium-ion battery, even damaged ones, to one of these drop-off stations. The battery must be separate from the device itself, but staff may be able to help people separate the battery.
Gray and Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub train the fire departments to receive and package the batteries safely, avoiding damage or compression. The hub then picks up those packages and delivers them to their recycling outlet partner, Cirba Solutions, in Wixom, Michigan.
The NKY fire chiefs that Gray approached about this program are grateful to bring it to their cities. Ludlow Fire Chief Michael Steward told LINK that even a small trash can fire can become a big one in Ludlow, where houses are packed close together.
The new drop-off stations are working to remove those hazards from households and trash cans and into safe recycling facilities. Northern Kentucky citizens with lithium-ion batteries to dispose of can contact the above fire stations or contact Brittany Gray at offsiteevents@cintirrh.org.