Talk:Battery recycling

Lithium metal recycling

Can the metal salvaged from Lithium Ion batteries and the like be used to make new lithium ion batteries? 217.171.129.73 (talk) 12:40, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Kind of. They have to process out the other materials first then they get a salt. It's not quit as simple as with lead-acid batteries. 75.70.90.36 (talk) 03:41, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

Essentially no - whereas more than 95% of lead-acid batteries in the USA, Europe and Australia (and many other places) are returned for recycling. Of those, more than 99% of the materials are re-used to make new batteries. Almost none of the lead from lead-acid batteries ends up in the environment. Lithium is frequently dumped in landfill (i.e. the massive number of small format batteries in laptops etc... this is a time-bomb as lithium builds up in the food chain and in your body ... nasty stuff). Otherwise it is turned into a sludge and mixed with concrete. There is very little true lithium recycling.

Which makes me wonder why this page shows a logo of lithium recycling top-right ... I would like to replace that - perhaps with this image (http://www.lead-battery-recycling.com/images/recyclingloop.jpg) which is much nicer anyway... but as far as I can tell I don't have permission to upload a new image (just joined as an editor today... so be nice if I have misunderstood :) Maybe someone could replace it for me? — Preceding unsigned comment added by QuestionNotTheNeed (talk • contribs) 02:02, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

Scope

It may just be my opinion, but doesn't the opening section of this article seem a bit UK/Europe-centered? The scope of the opening section needs to be widened. Plenty of American companies support and facilitate the recycling of batteries. I do know Radio Shack accepts certain types of batteries for recycling, and that Best Buy has 3 separate bins usually located just inside the store: one for Ink, one for mobile phones... and one for batteries. In addition, most professional auto mechanics in the United States and Canada will see that Lead-Acid batteries they replace end up in a proper facility. Alkaline batteries, though, are genenerally removed from their devices once they've been drained, and promptly thrown in the nearest waste receptacle.mComputer technicians occasionally have to replace drained cr2032 lithium batteries from older machines. I'm not sure about other technicians, but i generally just throw them in the nearest waste receptacle. Similar Lithium batteries from Nintendo Game Boy games have been reaching their end-of-useful-life. There are ways to replace them, however, much like with the CR2032 batteries in computers, I'd imagine if they're replaced, the old ones are simply thrown in the nearest waste receptacle. Those that aren't replaced may pose an even worse hazard, though. --Pandora Xero (talk) 16:56, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

What about recycling of non-hazardous batteries?

Shouldn't this subject include the recycling (or lack thereof) of non-hazardous batteries? I know that everyday alkaline batteries are now considered safe for landfills, but it seems to me that the materials in these batteries might be suitable for recycling anyway -- just as many metals are. If recycling of alkaline batteries is not possible, it would be nice to know why. If it is possible, then it would be nice to know where alkaline batteries can be taken. NoExpert-But-NotStupidEither (talk) 18:26, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Recycling alkaline batteries is very possible and there is a spot in Wichita where my mom takes alkaline batteries to be recycled for free and I think it's called Batteries+Bulbs. And I might work on improving the subject of non-hazardous batteries if Wikipedia stops removing my additional content BlackBear8473 (talk) 18:18, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Really good question, BlackBear8473.

It was recently raised at Quora as How are regular batteries recycled? (my emphasis) which I interpreted as asking about primary batteries (as opposed to rechargeable) and particularly alkaline batteries and the older (but still available) dry cells they have largely replaced.

My initial searches turned up lots of high-end graphics and broken links to factsheets and the like. It began to smell.

The question has now been rephrased and the word regular removed. Quora is not perfect! It smells more and more.

Recycling of disposable batteries used to be focussed on, and financed by, recovery of mercury. But mercury is now almost completely banned from use in disposable batteries, which is a good thing probably, even the mercury battery has gone the way of the dinosaur. So... what happens to these batteries now?

We have a little information at alkaline battery#Recycling with a primary source as the reference. Better than nothing. Andrewa (talk) 16:05, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Curiouser and curiouser... https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alkaline_battery&oldid=997279176#Recycling currently reads in part In the past, used batteries ended up at landfill sites, but in 2004, disposal of alkaline batteries at landfill sites was forbidden by an EU regulation. EU member countries are committed to recycling 50% of alkaline batteries by 2016. It's flagged as needing a source. Obviously it also needs an update. Andrewa (talk) 16:17, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Both users who raised this question, BlackBear8473 who was pinged before and NoExpert-But-NotStupidEither, are inactive and provided no email address. Probably not surprising. We are not perfect! Andrewa (talk) 16:22, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

resource

• Lead From Old U.S. Batteries Sent to Mexico Raises Risks by ELISABETH ROSENTHAL published December 8, 2011, excerpt ...

  The spent batteries Americans turn in for recycling are increasingly being sent to Mexico, where their lead is often extracted by crude methods that are illegal in the United States, exposing plant workers and local residents to dangerous levels of a toxic metal. The rising flow of batteries is a result of strict new Environmental Protection Agency standards on lead pollution, which make domestic recycling more difficult and expensive, but do not prohibit companies from exporting the work and the danger to countries where standards are low and enforcement is lax.

  99.181.141.143 (talk) 01:57, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

• This (above) was added on 10 Dec. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 11:34, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

• More ... Fighting Poor Recycling in Other Countries December 10, 2011, 9:00 AM excerpt ...

  When Americans turn in their old car batteries for recycling, they probably think they are doing good for the planet. And done well, recycling batteries is certainly environmentally responsible, since lead mining and processing cause far greater emissions of carbon dioxide than extracting lead from old car batteries for re-use.

99.181.141.143 (talk) 02:15, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

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Mercury data

The chart claims that alkaline batteries have mercury. That was true once upon a time, but in the USA that time ended in the late 1980s for name brands, and early 1990s for generics. Currently in the US it is only alkaline button cells that have mercury, and special "mercuric oxide" batteries used in military and medical applications. Whereas the "alkaline" line in the chart would generally be interpreted to mean consumer batteries like AA, AAA, 9V, etc. see: https://www.epa.gov/mercury/mercury-batteries MacroMyco (talk) 19:22, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

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Virgin lead as percent of leaded batteries vs. Recycled content

The article states that lead battery recycling is the most hazardous job in the world. While it's certainly hazardous, it's perposterous to insinuate that the children mining virgin lead from Kabwe, Zambia are less at risk than the adults using recycled lead batteries at the Thailand battery manufacturing plant.

The worst recycling is worse than the best recycling, but the worst recycling is better than the best mining. And lead mining is not the best mining.

I won't edit this directly but I think it's patently obvious that a new battery made with 90% recycled content is better than a new battery without recycled content. Retroworks (talk) 00:25, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

"According to one ranking, lead-acid battery recycling is, by far, the most deadly industrial process, globally, in terms of Disability-adjusted life years lost—costing between 2,000,000 and 4,800,000 estimated lost years of individual human life."

This one study found recycling to be an extremely deadly industrial process. You are extrapolating this out to encompass children mining which was most likely not included in this study. I don't think the researchers would disagree with that being bad news also. If you have a reliable source with the benefits of recycling over mining, that would be a great addition to the article. I don't think there is a need to edit the results of this constrained study which is just an example of how bad this stuff is. It is not an ultimate statement but just demonstrates an inherent problem with recycling. Cheers, Adflatuss (talk) 02:53, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

References

Wiki Education assignment: BIOL 412 HONORS

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 2 February 2024 and 3 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Patrickdoleary (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Elaw529, Lsm1041, Simone.eloise.

— Assignment last updated by Cara.begley (talk) 17:40, 10 March 2024 (UTC)