Proposal

From: Weiye Kuang

To: Maria Vint

Date: November 30, 2019

Subject: Solution to low recycling rate of lithium ion battery

The purpose of this proposal is to introduce the importance and benefits of recycling lithium ion batteries. What’s more, I will also
introduce my solution to increase the recycling rate of lithium ion battery.

Summary

Last month, I took a research and found that the recycling rate of lithium ion battery in the United States is less than 5%. Lithium ion
batteries are widely used in electronics and electric vehicles due to their high energy level. Recycling lithium ion batteries can reduce
environmental pollution and the consequences caused by people’s inappropriate disposal of lithium ion batteries. Recycling lithium
ion batteries can also reuse the precious metals, like lithium and cobalt, so that reduce the cost of the batteries and the material demand
on foreign resources. To find the reason for the low recycling rate of lithium ion battery, I conducted a survey. From the result of the
survey, I found that the awareness of ability and importance of recycling lithium ion battery is low. In order to increase the recycling
rate of lithium ion battery, I will try to use train advertisement to show people the importance of recycling lithium ion batteries and tell
them how to dispose they old lithium ion batteries properly.

Introduction

As an important part of electronics and electric vehicles, lithium ion batteries are widely used all over the world. The amount of
lithium ion batteries sold are keep increasing at a high rate in these years. As a result, the price of the materials are also keep
increasing and the inappropriate disposal of the old lithium ion batteries become a big problem. More and more countries pay attention
to the recycling of lithium ion batteries.

Recycling lithium ion battery can reuse the precious metals like cobalt, which is expensive and dependent on foreign resources. Reuse
these precious metals can reduce the cost of the battery and material demand on foreign resources. Recycling lithium ion batteries can
also reduce environmental pollution, since lithium ion batteries contain some toxic metals. What’s more, recycling lithium ion
batteries can reduce the consequences caused by inappropriate disposal of lithium ion batteries. Since many people don’t know how to
dispose of old lithium ion batteries properly, many lithium ion batteries would go to the landfills and collection vehicles. As a result,
lithium ion batteries might explode and cause a fire in the collection vehicles, landfills, and materials recovery facility.

However, in the United States, the recycling rate of lithium ion battery is less than 5%. To find the reasons for the low recycling rate, I
conducted a survey. From the results of the survey, I found that most people are willing to recycle something. More than 95% of the
respondents have recycling habits in their daily life, recycling bottles, paper or something else. Moreover, most people are lacking of
knowledge in recycling lithium ion batteries. Only about 25% of the respondents had heard about lithium ion battery recycling before
and more than 50% of the respondents don’t know how to dispose their old lithium ion batteries appropriately, and throw their old
lithium ion batteries into trash bin or regular recycling bin.

Based on my findings, the most important challenge of increasing the recycling rate of lithium ion battery is to find an effective way to
increase people’s awareness, to let more people know that they can recycle lithium ion batteries and how to recycle them. And train
advertising is that effective way. Train advertising can not be ignored and delivers a varied audience. According to MTA, in 2018,
average weekday subway ridership was 5.4 million, and annual ridership was up to 1.68 billion. With the huge ridership, train
advertising is an effective way to encourage people to recycle lithium ion batteries.

Proposed Solution

Task 1: Find an advertisement company to design the poster

At first, I would find an advertisement company to design the poster. The poster would show the importance of recycling lithium ion
batteries, and tell the audience how to recycle their old lithium ion batteries. The poster should be attractive, clear and easy to read.

Task 2: Contacting with MTA

After the poster designing is finished, I would contact with MTA company and discuss the details of the advertisement to decide the
format, space type, time and so on.

Budget

Item Cost
Advertisement design $249

Printing $5,000

Platform posters package (4 weeks) $45,000

Total $50,249

Appendixes

Task Schedule

Task 1: Design the poster 12/16/2019--12/18/2019

Task 2: Contact with MTA and decide the details 12/19/2019--12/20/2019

Advertising 01/02/2019--01/30/2019