From Garage to Grid: The Battery You Replaced Is Still Powering America

Whether you swapped out your car battery in the driveway or had it replaced at your local shop, the moment you handed over the old one set something remarkable in motion. That battery didn’t end up in a landfill. It entered one of the most efficient recycling loops in the world. Within months, the components inside it were back in circulation, powering another vehicle, a hospital backup system, or a forklift moving goods across a warehouse floor somewhere in the United States.

At Gopher Resource, we see that loop in action every day. From our recycling facilities in Eagan, Minnesota, and Tampa, Florida, we process more than 24 million spent lead batteries each year, returning the materials inside them to domestic manufacturing. We've been doing this work since 1946, and the supply chain we're part of has never mattered more.

On Global Recycling Day, that’s the story worth telling.

The Battery’s Journey

Every year, more than 160 million used lead batteries are collected across the U.S. They come from hundreds of thousands of collection sites, including auto service centers, retailers, and other battery collection points across the country. With a 99% recycling rate, lead batteries are the most recycled consumer product in the country.

At our advanced recycling facilities, nearly every component is recovered or reused, including the plastic casing, the acid, and the federally designated critical minerals lead, antimony, and tin. The recovered minerals are refined into lead alloys, often strengthened with antimony, and returned to the domestic battery manufacturers as ready-to-use raw materials.

In 2025 alone, Gopher Resource recycled more than 41 million pounds of plastic and recovered approximately 600 million pounds of lead for the domestic supply chain. That material goes directly back into the production of new batteries, which typically contain at least 80% recycled content.

That’s not just a sustainability talking point. It’s how the supply chain actually works.

Why “Recycled” Means “Domestic Supply”

The United States produces zero primary refined lead. No domestic smelters produce lead from newly mined ore. In practice, that means without recycling, American manufacturers would depend entirely on imports for a material that powers nearly 300 million vehicles, as well as critical backup systems, military installations, and data centers.

Instead, 70% of total U.S. lead demand is met through domestic recycling.

In November 2025, the U.S. Geological Survey formally recognized what the industry has long known, adding lead to the Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals. It joins antimony and tin on that list, two other critical minerals recovered in the same recycling process.

Lead battery recycling is essentially the only domestic source of antimony in the United States. When China banned antimony exports in December 2024, prices doubled overnight. Domestic recyclers continued supplying the material needed for battery manufacturing without interruption.

That’s what supply chain resilience looks like in practice.

Keeping Batteries in the U.S.

There’s one threat to this loop that doesn’t get enough attention: unlawful exports of spent lead batteries.

When used batteries leave the United States, the critical minerals inside them leave too. The lead, antimony, and tin that should be feeding American manufacturing instead go overseas.

Every battery that leaves illegally is a battery that doesn’t come back as domestic raw material. The regulations to protect this supply chain already exist. Enforcing them is the next step.

The People Powering the Loop

Behind that 99% recycling rate of batteries staying in the U.S. are the workers and facilities that make the system possible. Gopher Resource employs more than 625 people across our two facilities. These skilled workers have built careers in an industry that is essential to American manufacturing and energy security.

“Gopher Resource has been doing this work for 80 years, and what we do has never been more strategically important. The batteries we process in our facilities don't disappear. They come back as domestic critical minerals that American manufacturers depend on. That's not recycling as an afterthought. That's recycling as infrastructure.”  Daniel Leach, SVP & Chief Business Development Officer

On Global Recycling Day, Gopher Resource is proud to be part of a system that delivers not only environmental value, but economic and strategic value to the communities and the country we operate in.

From the garage to the grid, recycled batteries keep America powered.