Are Electric Bikes Just as Wasteful? The Rising Issue of Battery Disposal

[Un article de The Conversation écrit par Yvonne Ryan – Professeur associé en sciences de l”environnement, Université de Limerick]

Electric bikes make cycling easier, faster and more accessible. They already play an important role in reducing the environmental impact of transport, especially when they replace a individual car trip.

But when you put an electric bike in the scrap, you also have to get rid of your battery. However, these batteries can be particularly dangerous for the environment and difficult to eliminate (The appropriate recycling sectors not always mobilized, edlt). The boom in electric bikes is therefore accompanied by a new environmental problem: the increase in waste from electrical and electronic equipment (DEE).

The sector needs stricter regulation to encourage it to reduce its waste. In particular, it would be a question of encouraging the design of bikes that are easier to repair or recycle and establish universal standards allowing parts to operate for different brands and different models, so that the components can be reused instead of being thrown away.

Despite everything, electric bikes often pass between the legs of the legislative net. Their exclusion of priority products, within the framework of the EU regulation on eco -design of sustainable products, introduced in 2024, is regrettable.

At the University of Limerick, Ireland, colleagues and I conducted research on the environmental impact of electric bikes. We were interested in their entire life cycle, from the mining of metals to the manufacture, use and final elimination of bikes, in order to see if there were means to reduce the amount of materials used.

We interviewed retailers and people working in the field of waste management. They told us about their concerns about the online sale of lower quality electric bikes, whose components become more easily defective, which leads to a more frequent renewal.

Using data relating to the fleet of electric bikes in use on our university, we have seen problems of design and compatibility of components. Bike tires, for example, have become more and more atypical and specialized.

Additive manufacturing, for example 3D printing, could become more important for retailers and bicycle repairers, who could use it to print themselves nuts, screws or even spare stools. This could be particularly necessary in island states like Ireland, where there are often delays in the supply of spare parts.

But the electric bikes must first be of sufficient quality to be repaired. And to create spare parts, you still have to have access to the necessary data, that is to say digital files containing precise drawings of objects such as a tire or a bicycle handlebar.

Lie the lifespan of electric bikes

New business models are emerging. Some companies lend electric bikes to their employees, a management company taking care of maintenance and repair.

There are also an increasing number of mobile electric bike repair services, as well as specialized training for repairing and retailing electric bikes, through manufacturers' platforms such as Bosch or Shimano.

Electric bike brands are also gradually changing from the sale of bikes to an offer of scalable services. For example, the Cowboy electric bike retailer offers a subscription to mobile mechanics, and Vanmoof is associated with approved repair services. But, if these models work well in large cities, they are not necessarily adapted to rural areas and small agglomerations.

However, it is necessary to ensure that consumers are not disadvantaged or excluded from repair possibilities. In the United States, manufacturers of electric bikes have requested derogations from the laws aimed at facilitating the repair of the products, while insisting that the public should not be authorized to access the data necessary to make the repairs.

Electric bikes sometimes difficult to distinguish simple bikes

Regarding waste treatment, some of the innovations that have made electric bikes more accessible create new problems. For example, electric bikes have evolved to become finer and elegant – and, therefore, they are sometimes impossible to distinguish ordinary bikes. It is therefore easier for them to find themselves in household waste treatment units (sorting, incineration, discharge, etc.) which are not equipped for electronic waste. If a lithium-ion battery inside an electric bike is still loaded and it is crushed or shredded (during sorting, for example), it can trigger a fire.

This problem is far from insoluble. Computer vision and other artificial intelligence technologies could help identify electric bikes and batteries in waste management facilities. The QR codes affixed to bicycle frames could also be used to provide information on the entire product life cycle, including repair manuals and services history, such as passports of products offered by the European Union.

Awareness, choice and education of consumers remain essential. If it is up to consumers to take the initiative for the maintenance and repair of electric bikes, political decision -makers must ensure that these options are available and affordable and that consumers know them.

The retailers, for their part, need help to integrate repair and reuse in their commercial models. These include setting up home/workplace packages to facilitate the maintenance of electric bikes. This also involves better access to insurance and legal protections, in particular for the sale of electric bikes. Finally, they need a workforce with the skills necessary to repair these bikes.

All over the world, “Vélothets” (loan or bicycle rental services, editor's note) And the programs “try before buying” help consumers make better decisions, because they allow them to test an electric bike before engaging. The abandonment of the traditional property model – especially for expensive electric bikes – could also make active mobility more accessible.

Policies that promote sales, such as subsidies and incentives for the purchase of new bikes, can go against the efforts made to reduce waste. We need more policies that promote repair and refurbishment of electric bikes.

This sector has a strong potential to limit our environmental impact and improve public health. But for these advantages to materialize, we must strive to make them last longer and to consume fewer natural resources for the latter.