Could orange peels help recover metals from a spent cellphone battery? Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore tested just that in 2020, using discarded orange peels to recover valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries, instead of using traditional industrial chemicals. According to NTU's own research announcement, the team recovered close to 90 percent of the cobalt, lithium, nickel, and manganese from the dead cells. Every old cellphone, laptop, or electric vehicle battery in your drawer contains metals that were mined and processed at real environmental and financial cost. This research shows that those metals can be recovered and reused with the help of a common fruit.
Old batteries and America's critical minerals problem
