Battery processing waste management

C. Lupi, M. Pasquali, A. Dell Era, "Nickel and Cobalt Recycling from Lithium-ion-batteries by Electrochemical Processes," Waste Management, 2005,25(2), 215-220. 

A smaller fraction (400 tonnes/year) of portable Ni-Cd batteries collected by industrial waste management companies is either processed with industrial waste and treated for recycling in non-dedicated processes like steel and lead recycling plants, or introduced legally in landfills according to local authorization procedures. 

The knowledge of the practise of waste management by consumers is a recent issue. Not all parameters of this dynamic process are known. It has been demonstrated in this chapter that there is no direct correlation between the quantity of rechargeable batteries (and equipment) purchased during one year and the quantity that are discarded or taken back to a collection centre. 

The SCRELEC collection process is very similar to that operated by GRS Batterien in Germany. Collection boxes of various types are distributed to collection points. Currently two waste management companies have been contacted to collect the batteries from the various collection points including stores, business or industrial sites and municipal waste facilities, and forward them to a sorting facility. This scheme is co-ordinated via a national call centre. SCRELEC has released an invitation to tender for the collection sorting and recycling of batteries in France. 

The battery producers are obliged to monitor and analyse the results obtained with the collecting operations. They must submit an atmual report to the authority for waste management. In practice, this regulation compels the producers to participate in the recycling process and introduces the producers responsibility . 

Other processing methods and variations on the above processes have been proposed that may merit consideration. Interested readers are referred to the Proceedings of the International Seminar on Battery Waste Management and the relevant journals cited at the end of the chapter for more detailed information on these and other processes. 

The concept of producer responsibility is now an accepted part of the UK waste management process. Basically, it is an extended version of the polluter pays principle, placing responsibility for the environmental impact of a product onto tire producer of the product. The intention is to prevent pollution, reduce use of energy and other resources throughout the life cycle of the product by better design and production. It encourages all stakeholders involved in the production and sale of products to ensure that products are recovered and recycled at the end of their life. Initially in 1997, producer responsibility was applied to packaging but has since been extended to other areas such as waste electrical and electronic equipment, batteries, vehicles and tyres. 

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