Recycle your old or used batteries
The main reason for recycling batteries is to reduce the number of batteries being disposed at municipal dumping sites
POLOKWANE – Batteries contain several poisonous chemicals and heavy metal, and dumping them can cause serious environmental damage, such as soil contamination and water pollution.
Some battery dealers pay a refundable deposit to encourage the recycling of old batteries instead of disposal with household waste. Batteries can be sold to scrap metal dealers or handed in at drop-off centres.
Almost all types of batteries can be recycled, but some batteries are recycled more often than others. Lead –acid batteries are 99% recyclable due to the value of the lead and toxicity levels, and button cells because of the toxicity of their chemicals. Alkaline and rechargeable batteries can also be recycled.
Lead-acid batteries include car batteries, UPS batteries and commercial batteries. These can be lead-acid, sealed lead-acid, gel type or absorbent glass mat batteries. Lead-acid batteries consists of 65% lead, 10% plastic, 16% acids and 9% other materials.
Silver oxide batteries are used in watches, toys, medical devices and contain a small amount of mercury which is highly toxic when recycled.
Lead-acid batteries are broken apart in a hammer mill. The broken pieces are placed in a vat, where the heavy metals fall to the bottom and the plastic floats. Now the polypropylene pieces are scooped up and the water drained. The pieces are washed, dried and send to a plastic recycler where the pieces are melted and put through an extruder to produce small plastic pellets. These are then sold to a manufacturer of battery cases or any other plastic manufacturer of plastic products.
The lead parts are cleaned and heated. The melted lead is then poured into ingot moulds. Impurities float to the top and get scraped away. When the ingots are cooled, they are removed from the moulds and sent to manufacturers to be used in the production of new batteries. Battery acid can be neutralized with an industrial compound which turns the acid to water.
This water is then tested and send to the waste water treatment plant to be sure it meets clean water standards.
Reduce, recycle, re-use!
