15-Year-Old Sri Nihal Tammana, Leading A Global Movement For Battery Recycling

“Read the article again. What are the problems with batteries? What did Sri Nihal and his friends do to help solve these problems? What did you find about Sri Nihal and his project from the article? Sri Nihal had a vision. Look at the four levels of action on page 85. Which level has Sri Nihal reached with his organization? Talk about it in class.”

The above are part of a German educational textbook by Westermann Verlag, which includes a lesson and questions for students to learn, reflect, discuss, and answer in Class and Tests about a 15-year-old youth of Indian origin, living in New Jersey. 

It all started when Sri Nihal Tammana was just 10 years old. He saw on the TV about a lithium-ion battery explosion at a waste disposal plant in California. Sri Nihal discovered the environmental dangers of battery waste - improper disposal leads to toxic pollution, fires, and health hazards. “Determined to make a difference, I founded Recycle My Battery (RMB), a nonprofit dedicated to educating communities and making battery recycling easy and accessible. Over the past five years, my initiative has grown into a global movement,” Sri Nihal says proudly. 

In the past five years, since he launched the movement to save the Earth from the effects of Batteries, Sri Nihal Tammana has been instrumental in recycling as many as 625,000+ batteries, preventing hazardous waste from polluting landfills. He has helped educate 40 million people through school programs, corporate workshops, and media outreach. 

Recognizing his efforts and dedication to render Mother Earth from the adverse impacts of batteries, Sri Nihal has been “featured in a German educational textbook by Westermann Verlag, which includes a lesson about my work and questions for students. This ensures that students across Germany learn about battery recycling as part of their curriculum, further amplifying my impact.” 

A student of the Monroe township High School in Monroe, New Jersey, Sri Nihal points out: “Every year, close to 15 billion batteries are thrown in the trash globally. Most of these end up in landfills. This can cause catastrophic fires, pollute the environment with dangerous chemicals, and contribute significantly to climate change by emitting greenhouse gases.” Not only does he want to raise awareness of the dangers to the Earth posed by thrown-away batteries, he also wants to create solutions for the future. “Did you know that only around 1% of people know about proper battery disposal? That’s something that needs to change.”

Sri Nihal helped launch The Residual Charge Project, a prototype approved by the University of Waterloo to repurpose unused battery energy for recycling plants. In order to sustain and expand the initiative, Sri Nihal created a Change.org petition, pushing for battery manufacturers to fund recycling programs, gathering 3,000+ signatures thus far. 

Sri Nihal’s movement has now 900+ youth volunteers onboarded, empowering students to become changemakers. The Battery Challenge has now expanded to 30+ schools, aiming to recycle 300,000 batteries by year-end. Through his efforts, 1,000+ free battery bins have been placed in schools, libraries, and businesses. 

Nihal's mission has come to be recognized, winning him and his non-profit organization, Recycle My Battery, dozens of accolades and awards. Sri Nihal has been featured on CNN, BBC, TEDx, and several other major media platforms, helping to spread awareness globally. 

This young prodigy has been recognized with 75+ national and international awards, including CNN Heroes Young Wonder, Top 3 Finalist in the International Children’s Peace Prize, the Diana Award, and the Barron Prize.  These awards and recognitions have strengthened his mission. “They called it a really cool initiative and said to keep doing the work to save Mother Earth. They said, I was doing a really great job and keep doing what you're doing − it's really good work.”

Australia is in the process of partnering with RMB, with B-cycle working to place battery bins in all schools across the country. 

Describing his Future Vision, young Sri Nihal says, “I want to expand RMB globally, ensuring that every school, community, and country has access to battery recycling solutions. With the success of The Battery Challenge, my partnerships in Germany and Australia, and my growing policy advocacy, I am working to make battery recycling a worldwide standard.” And, he believes that “Through education, innovation, and advocacy, I aim to mobilize millions more changemakers and ensure a cleaner, safer planet for future generations - one battery at a time.”

Nihal plans to major in environmental science in college and eventually invent his own eco-friendly battery. “I want to study Physics and Chemistry and learn about the environmental impacts on the Earth like climate change and everything. So I can use all this to make my own eco-friendly battery, which will use 0% of harmful chemicals and it will be able to be thrown away into the trash. So, it will be good for performance and for all of us to enjoy all the environment and the Earth will also enjoy it as well as it will be very sustainable. I will learn more engineering and environmental science so I can use all the things which I've learned to benefit all.”

Sri Nihal serves as a powerful reminder that everyone has the ability to create a better world by embracing passion, perseverance, and the willingness to act. 

Nihal lives in Monroe, NJ with his father Vamsi, mother Deepika and younger sister Nithya, who actively support in the Recycle My Battery campaign. Nihal is committed to his organization's motto: “If I can make earth a better place to live, you can! If you can make Earth a better place to live, we all can!”

For information, become a member of Recycle My Battery, or request a battery bin for a school, go to RecycleMyBattery.org