Deadly Battery Recycling, Social Media Ban and Women Leaning Out: What I’m Reading This Week

Most of the news I came across this week wasn’t cheerful. This week has reiterated the importance of being informed while also practicing self-care.

In fact, I attended an author discussion at my local library last night about the importance of self-care. I scrambled to jot down something I thought was so profound: “Self-care is a team sport.”

The sentiment harkens back to the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. But I think it goes an important step farther in noting that we need a lot of different people offering us lots of different support to be at our best.

Unfortunately, all too often we sequester ourselves when aren’t at our best or don’t have all the answers. The presenter and moderator flipped the script and described it as an act of bravery, vulnerability and humility to let others help us—especially when we need it most. That giving and taking allows us to simultaneously care for and be cared for by our community.

I’m going to be thinking long and hard about how I can show up for others and also let others show up for me. I invite you to do the same.

One last thing before we get into this week’s roundup: I had to contact customer service line for some assistance. Instead of saying goodbye, the agent said, “Stay safe and strong with your loved ones.” This holiday season feels more subdued to me than in year’s past; it feels like the goal is survival rather than joyful exuberance. So, even if you’re not feeling particularly festive for any number of reasons, I hope you can feel safe and supported by your self-care team.

Until next time, stay safe, be well and be kind.

Deadly Battery Recycling

One thorny issue for electric vehicles is the car battery. They are expensive to replace, and there isn’t yet a process for recycling components like there are for internal combustion engine batteries. I was aghast when I saw an article about battery recycling that was poisoning people, particularly in developing nations.

Will Fitzgibbon, in a reporting collaboration with The Examination and The New York Times, recounted years of attempts to remove lead, or at least improve, the recycling conditions of the element from car batteries.

The final product is incredible. The narrative is compelling, the sourcing is unmatched and the details leave no questions unanswered. What’s more, the accompanying photography shows and tells the conditions of workers in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There are many standout passages in this story. Here’s one quote to whet your appetite:

“These minerals hit the news and you had all these human rights violations going on,” said Steven B. Young, an industrial ecologist and professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. “Some companies said, ‘Holy crap, we don’t want this in our supply chain. What can we do?’

“I don’t think lead has had that moment,” he said.

I recommend reading this article, then reflecting on how safety for some can mean danger for others.  

Social Media Ban

A few days ago, Australia became the first country to block children under the age of 16 from using social media. Well, kind of.

Australian children are banned from using 10 major social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok. According to the law, children cannot set up new accounts and existing profiles will be suspended until they turn 16.

Social media platforms found to be in noncompliance with the law can face fines of up to $49.5 million Australian dollars (or $32 million USD). Some social media platforms, including Reddit and X, are challenging the law.

Interestingly, platforms such as YouTube Kids, WhatsApp, Roblox and ByteDance’s Lemon8 are still allowed—for now. The eSafety commissioner says the list of banned sites is evolving and more platforms could be banned in the future.

“We’ll be looking at everything from are kids sleeping more, are they interacting more? Are they taking fewer antidepressants? Are they reading more books? Are they going outside doing sports?” said eSafety Commissioner Inman Grant at the Sydney Dialogue, a policy summit for critical, emerging and cyber technologies.

In February, the eSafety Commissioner issued a report that found 80% of Australian respondents aged 8 to 12 and 95% of respondents aged 13 to 15 had used one or more social media platforms in 2024.

While some Australian children and their parents are embracing the government’s “Let them be kids” campaign, others are looking for ways to circumvent the age verification technology or next social media platform. Critics argue that the law has effectively created a game of Whac-A-Mole that could prompt children to use far less regulated and potentially more dangerous platforms.

Still, other countries and the European Union are eyeing Australia’s model, with some saying they might try to implement a similar ban.

Many international news outlets have reported on the new law, including the BBC, CNN and Reuters.

Women Leaning Out

In March 2013, Sheryl Sandberg, then COO of Facebook, encouraged women to lean in. Sandberg’s best-selling book, “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead,” advised women on how to overcome barriers, achieve success and find personal fulfillment. She also spoke to how employers can create more inclusive workplaces that bring out the best in all employees.

The book’s success led to many things, including an annual report on the state of women in the workplace. This report, conducted annual by McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.org, found that more companies are overlooking women.

Here are a few of this year's grim statistics:

• Only half of companies are prioritizing women’s career advancement, with 20% saying they are placing low or no priority on women’s career advancement. That figure rose to about 30% when asked about the advancement of women of color.
• 67% of companies report that diversity is a high priority compared to 90% of companies in 2021.
• 31% of entry-level women have a sponsor compared to 45% of men at their level.
• 60% of senior-level women report feeling burned out compared to 50% of senior-level men.
• 37% of women who work three or more days a week remote receive a promotion in the last two years compared to 49% of men.

It’s not really a surprise then, that this year’s report also recorded the largest ambition gap between women and men in the corporate world.

As Beth Kowitt writes for Bloomberg Opinion: “It’s hard to blame them. In the last year, the workplace has become a more hostile place for women — not that it ever particularly embraced them. As some of the hard-fought progress of the last decade is backsliding, they are asking why they should aspire for something that feels increasingly out of reach.”

I encourage you to read Kowitt’s nuanced reflection of the past year as well as the free report. But perhaps more importantly, I encourage you to think about your own interactions and ask what you can do to create a more inclusive workplace for all.