Introduction

Extraction

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Manufacturing

Small, lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries power the mobile phones in our pockets. Those batteries are made of materials that were once natural resources.

What knowledge, skills, processes, and machinery do you think are used by the professionals who make batteries?

Transportation

After lithium-ion pouch cells are made, they are packaged up for the next part of the supply chain: transportation. The cells are shipped to the mobile phone manufacturing facilities for assembly. Transporting lithium-ion cells and batteries creates new challenges for many stakeholders including safety scientists, packaging and shipping companies, cargo carriers, and manufacturers. Safety scientists investigate the safest way to package and ship batteries.

Use

At this point in the supply chain, the mobile phone and battery have made their way to the end user: you!

Make an estimate: How many mobile phones do you think are being used in the world today?

Where are the most mobile phones in the world used?

Disposal

Mobile phones and their batteries are one of the fastest growing categories of e-waste. Let’s see what happens when you dispose of your phone.

What would make you want to upgrade and get rid of your current mobile phone?

What do you do with an electronic device when you want to get rid of it?

Where do you think that device will end up?

Solutions

Lithium-ion batteries power our lives, but they present us with both benefits and drawbacks. We have the power to evaluate the trade-offs and contribute to solutions that reduce those drawbacks.

If we continue our current trends of extracting raw materials, manufacturing, transporting, using, and disposing of lithium-ion batteries, what do you think the world would look like?