Redwood Material’s Co-founder and CEO JB Straubel has been elected to ERI’s board of directors. Image contributed

Fresno’s Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) has announced a partnership with a renewable energy and sustainable materials company headed by a Tesla co-founder.

ERI is partnering with the Nevada-based Redwood Materials for electronics battery recycling as well as a new solar panel recycling line of business.

Along with the companies partnering to tackle “the last mile of electronic recycling”, Redwood Material’s Co-founder and CEO JB Straubel has been elected to ERI’s board of directors. Redwood Materials has also made a “significant strategic investment in ERI,” the terms of which were not disclosed.

Straubel, a co-founder of Tesla, also previously served as the electric vehicle company’s chief technology officer.

ERI is the country’s largest fully integrated IT and electronic asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company.

Founded in 2017, Redwood Materials develops sustainable materials with an eye toward creating circular supply chains using recycled waste, and is working to develop solutions for fully closed-loop recycling for lithium-ion batteries.

“Redwood is focused on steadily and relentlessly improving recycling economics with technology to reduce the cost of materials and create a circular supply chain to power a sustainable future,” said Straubel. “By partnering with ERI, we’ll be able to ensure the largest supply of e-waste batteries in the US is recycled into materials to build new EVs and clean energy products.”

“ERI and Redwood Materials working together signals a unique, unprecedented partnership that will tackle the ‘last mile’ of electronic recycling: solar panels and batteries,” said John Shegerian, ERI’s co-founder and executive chairman. “And it will be done in a radically transparent, end-to-end closed loop manner where elements — from cobalt, nickel, copper, lithium — will be kept out of landfills, responsibly recycled, and put back into new products. We are incredibly excited to be entering into this strategic partnership with Redwood Materials.”