Colombia’s rapid switch to EVs is creating battery waste

This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.

For three years, Juan Vega sped across Cartagena, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, on his electric motorcycle – one of thousands of recent converts to the environment-friendly option. When he needed to replace the lithium battery last year, however, he found he had few options to dispose of it safely.

“I asked the people who sold me the bike, and they said they don’t dispose of batteries,” Vega, 41, told Rest of World. He went to his regular auto workshop but they, too, declined to take the battery, saying they had no way of transporting it to a recycling facility.

More than 9,000 electric vehicles were sold in Colombia last year, a 150% increase from 2023. At least five battery recycling companies have set up shop in recent years, spearheading a burgeoning industry in Latin America aimed at curbing emissions and minimising environmental impact.

Encouraged by one of the strongest regulatory frameworks for e-waste recycling in the region, these startups now process thousands of tons of batteries a year, including a growing number of batteries for EVs. Still, they face significant challenges, such as declining recovery rates for electronic devices in general, and a...

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