Battery recycling is a recycling activity that aims to reduce the amount of battery disposed of as municipal waste. Batteries contain a number of heavy metals and toxic chemicals and dispose of them in the same process as ordinary waste has raised concerns over soil contamination and water pollution.
Video Battery recycling
Recycle battery by type
Most types of batteries can be recycled. However, some batteries are more easily recycled than others, such as lead-acid (nearly 90% recycled) automotive batteries and button cells (due to the value and toxicity of their chemicals). Other types, such as alkaline and rechargeable, for example, nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd), nickel metal hydrides (Ni-MH), lithium-ion (Li-ion) and nickel-zinc (Ni-Zn), can also recycle.
Lead-acid batteries
These batteries include but are not limited to: car batteries, golf cart batteries, UPS batteries, industrial fork-lift batteries, motorcycle batteries, and commercial batteries. These can be ordinary lead acid, sealed lead-acid, gel type, or an absorbent glass doormat battery. It is recycled by grinding it, neutralizing the acid, and separating the polymer from the tin. Recovered materials are used in a variety of applications, including new batteries.
Lead-acid wires can be recycled. Lead elements are toxic and therefore should be kept out of the waste stream.
Many cities offer battery recycling services for lead-acid batteries. In some jurisdictions, including US states and Canadian provinces, a refundable deposit is payable for the battery. This encourages the recycling of old batteries instead of wasting or disposing of household waste. In the United States, about 99% of lead from rechargeable batteries is reclaimed.
Businesses that sell new car batteries can also collect used batteries (or are required to do so by law) for recycling. Some businesses accept old batteries on a "walk-in" basis, as opposed to replacing new batteries. Most battery stores and recycling centers pay for used batteries. This can be a tantalizing business, particularly attractive to risk takers because of wild fluctuations in lead value that can happen overnight. As the price of tin rises, the used batteries become targets for thieves.
Silver oxide battery
Most commonly used in watches, toys, and some medical devices, silver oxide batteries contain little mercury. Most jurisdictions regulate their handling and disposal to reduce mercury disposal to the environment. The silver oxide battery can be recycled to recover mercury.
Lithium ion battery
Lithium-ion batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries (LiFePO4) often contain high quality metals and aluminum which are useful in addition to metals - depending on the active ingredient - the cobalt and nickel transition metals and the rare earths. To prevent future cobalt, nickel, and lithium deficiencies and to enable a sustainable lifecycle of this technology, a recycling process for lithium batteries is required. These processes must retrieve not only cobalt, nickel, copper, and aluminum from used battery cells, but also significant lithium parts. To achieve this goal, multiple operating units are incorporated into complex process chains, primarily taking into account the task of restoring high-level valuable materials related to the security issues involved.
This operating unit is:
- Disabling or discharging the battery (especially if the battery is from an electric vehicle)
- Battery system disassembly (especially for battery from electric vehicle)
- Mechanical processes (including crushing, sorting and sifting)
- Hydrometallurgical process
- Pyrometallurgical process
The specific hazards associated with recycling lithium-ion batteries are: electrical hazards, chemical hazards, burning reactions, and their potential interactions. A troubling factor is water sensitivity: lithium hexafluorophosphate, a possible electrolyte, will react with water to form hydrofluoric acid; The cells are often immersed in a solvent to prevent this. Once removed, the jelly rolls are separated and the material removed by ultrasonic agitation, leaving the electrode ready for melting and recycling.
The pouch cells are very easy to recycle in this way and some people have already done this to save copper despite a security problem.
By 2017, Li-Ion battery recyclers generally do not extract lithium because different types of Li-Ion batteries require different extraction processes. Another reason why this is not done is that the extraction of lithium from older 5x batteries is more expensive than the mined lithium but efforts are being made to commercialize the industry in the hope that unused batteries will come in large quantities.
Battery composition based on type
Italics sets the button cell type.
Bold designates a secondary type.
All numbers are percentages; because their rounding may not add up to exactly 100.
Maps Battery recycling
Recycling battery by location
* Number for Q1 and Q2 2012.
European Union
In 2006, the EU issued a Battery Directive, one of the goals was a higher battery recycling rate. The EU directive states that at least 25% of all batteries used in the EU should be collected in 2012, and up by no less than 45% by 2016, of which at least 50% should be recycled.
Channel Islands
In early 2009, Guernsey took the initiative by establishing the Longue Hougue recycling facility, which, among other functions, offers a drop-off point for used batteries so they can be recycled outside the island. The resulting publicity means that many people meet the demand to dispose of batteries responsibly.
United Kingdom
From April 2005 to March 2008, WRAP UK non-governmental bodies conducted a battery-of-battery recycling test in the UK. The methods tested were: Kerbside, retail drop-off, community decline, post, and hospital and fire-fighting trials. The kerbside experiment collects the most mass of batteries, and is most well received and understood by the public. Community drop-off containers scattered around local community areas are also relatively successful in terms of the number of batteries collected. The lowest performance is a trial of hospital and fire services (although it serves their purpose very well for special battery types like hearing aids and smoke alarm batteries). Retail dropoff testing is the second most effective method (by volume) but one of the most well-received and used by the public. Both kerbside and post trials receive the highest awareness and community support.
Household batteries can be recycled in the UK on board recycling sites as well as in some shops and shopping centers - for example, Dixons, Currys, The Link, and PC World .
The scheme started in 2008 by major retailers enables household batteries to be posted for free in envelopes available in their stores. This scheme was canceled at the request of Royal Mail due to hazardous industrial battery waste sent as well as household batteries.
The EU directive on batteries that came into effect in 2009 meant manufacturers had to pay for battery collection, maintenance, and recycling. It has not been ratified into English law, so there is currently no real incentive for manufacturers to provide the necessary services.
Beginning February 1, 2010, batteries can be recycled wherever the sign of Be Positive appears. Online stores and retailers selling more than 32 kilograms of batteries per year must offer facilities to recycle batteries. This is equivalent to one pack of four AA batteries a day. Stores that sell this amount must by law provide recycling facilities on February 1, 2010.
In the UK, more and more stores (Argos, Homebase, B & T, Tesco, and Sainsbury's) provide boxes and cylinders of battery returns to their customers.
North America
The rechargeable battery industry has formed Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC), which operates a battery recycling program called Call2Recycle throughout the United States and Canada. RBRC provides businesses with pre-paid shipping containers for rechargeable batteries of all types while consumers can lower batteries at many participating collection centers. He claims that there are no components of recycled batteries that eventually reach the final dump. Other programs, such as the Big Green Box program, offer recycling options for all chemicals, including primary batteries such as alkaline and lithium primers.
A study estimates battery recycling rates in Canada based on RBRC data. In 2002, he wrote, a collection rate of 3.2%. This implies that 3.2% rechargeable batteries are recycled, and the rest is thrown into the trash. In 2005, it was concluded, the collection rate increased to 5.6%.
In 2009, Kelleher Environmental updated the study. Updates estimate the following. "The collection rate values ​​for 5 and 15 years assumptions are: 8% to 9% for NiCd batteries; 7% to 8% for NiMH batteries; and 45% to 72% for lithium ion batteries and polymer lithium coupled The collection rate through the [RBRC] program for all end-of ages of small closed lead acid consumer (SLA) batteries is estimated to reach 10% for the assumptions of accumulation over 5 years and 15 years [...] It should also be emphasized that these figures are done not taking a secondary consumer battery pool through another source into the account, and the actual collection rate is likely to be higher than these values. "
The November 2011 New York Times article reports that batteries collected in the United States are being transported to Mexico for recycling as a result of the widening gap between strict environmental and labor regulations between the two countries.
In 2015, Energizer announces the availability of AAA and AA alkaline batteries made with 3.8% to 4% (by weight) of recycled batteries, branded as EcoAdvanced.
Japanese
Japan does not have a single national battery recycling law, so the advice given is to follow local and regional laws and codes in disposing of batteries. The Japanese Battery Association (BAJ) recommends that alkaline, zinc-carbon and lithium primary batteries be disposed of as regular household waste. BAJ's stance on key cells and secondary batteries is to recycle and improve national standardization procedures for handling this type of battery.
In April 2004, Japan Portable Recycled Battery Recycling Center (JBRC) was created to handle and promote battery recycling throughout Japan. They provide battery recycling containers to shops and other collection points.
See also
- Electronic trash
- WEEE directive (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)
- Battery (electric)
- Rechargeable battery
References
Further reading
- G. Pistoia, J.-P. Wiaux and S.P. Wolsky, ed. (2001). Use of battery collection and recycling . Library of Industrial Chemistry, Volume 10. Amsterdam: Science Elsevier. ISBN 0-444-50562-8.
External links
- Recycle batteries in Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- "Taking a Green Battery", an article ECN Magazine from 2010
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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