90% of lead is captured from spent batteries

Advanced Battery Technology, Dec 2001

American motorists continue to return spent lead-acid batteries for recycling at a high rate, according to a recent report issued by Battery Council International (BCI). The BCI 1995-1999 National Recycling Rate Study tracks the lead recycling rate from spent (or used) automotive, truck, motorcycle, marine, garden tractor, and other lead-acid batteries, and reports that between 1995 and 1999, the battery industry captured and recycled 93.3% of the lead from such batteries.

"This high recycling rate of battery lead is the result of a successful collaboration among members of the battery industry, retailers and consumers," said Keith Wandell, acting president of BCI. "It proves that a workable infrastructure helps boost consumers' participation in recycling."

The lead-acid battery industry, the country's largest user of lead, has been recycling and reclaiming lead from its spent products for nearly 75 years. Its trade organization, BCI, was instrumental in helping pass the lead-acid battery recycling laws that prohibit the disposal of spent lead-acid batteries and require batteries to be collected through a takeback program. Those laws are now on the books in 42 states. The BCI model battery recycling legislation was designed to promote the industry's highly effective, reverse distribution battery collection infrastructure.

Most major retailers and auto parts stores collect spent batteries from consumers who buy replacement batteries. Consumers who do not trade in their spent automotive batteries generally are charged a deposit that averages from $4.00 to $7.00 per battery, depending on the retailer and the state.

Battery recyclers reclaim the lead - and today, plastic from battery cases - along with any scrap lead from the production floors and lead particles captured in environmental control equipment, returning the materials to manufacturers who use them in new batteries and other products such as X-ray shielding. In a continuous cycle, the battery industry reclaims and reuses lead and plastic indefinitely, keeping them out of the waste stream. "The lead in your car battery today could have been first used in a battery 50 years ago," said Wandell.

BCI has been tracking the recycling rate of battery lead since 1987, and says it has consistently ranked higher than other recyclable commodities, including newspapers, aluminum cans, and plastic and glass bottles.

Lead-acid battery recycling in the U.S. is one of the environmental success stories of the 20th century," says Wandell. "We know that other countries are recycling used lead-acid batteries, and we are encouraged that they are considering tracking and publishing the data so that the battery industry can publish global recycling rates for its used products."

A copy of BCI's 1995-1999 National Recycling Rate Study, along with historical recycling data, is available at www.batterycouncil.org.