"The overlapping crises of our time present an opportunity to build more resilient cities by implementing zero waste models.
The concept of Community Right-to-Know underscores the importance of public access to environmental data collected by recycling facilities to ensure meaningful public participation in decision-making processes that affect local environments and communities. This fact sheet highlights the five key takeaways of the report, Risks of Lithium-ion Battery Facilities to Workers and Communities in Reno, which examines the environmental and health implications of lithium-ion battery recycling in Nevada’s rapidly expanding “Lithium Loop” and beyond.
Lithium-ion battery recycling is increasingly framed as a critical climate solution. However, without strong transparency and accountability standards, this emerging industry risks generating new environmental health harms even as it claims to address others. The concept of Community Right-to-Know highlights the importance of public access to environmental data collected by recycling facilities to ensure meaningful public participation in decision-making processes that affect local environments and communities.
This case study examines the environmental and health implications of lithium-ion battery recycling in Nevada’s rapidly expanding “Lithium Loop” and is designed not only to document current conditions but to equip communities, policymakers, and other stakeholders with the information and frameworks needed to strengthen transparency and accountability across the sector. This case study marks the launch of GAIA’s Community Right-to-Know Initiative for Battery Recycling, a multi-year effort to:
Without these safeguards, the economic and climate benefits of electrification risk posing environmental health burdens to local communities. Transparency, accountability, and meaningful participation are prerequisites for a just and sustainable battery supply chain.
This fact sheet details the impacts of bioplastics on human health and the environment, and how it replaces one form of single-use pollution with another, diverting attention from proven solutions to plastic waste through prevention and reuse.
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