Q&A Batteries Collection and Sorting

All household battery types will be collected and recycled including both rechargeable and non-rechargeable batteries and battery packs from electronic and electrical equipment.

It also doesn’t matter if the batteries are full, completely
discharged or only part used.

Batteries that can be recycled via the collection trials are portable batteries that are:

• batteries which an average person could carry in one hand without difficulty
  single cell batteries, such as AA, AAA, button and ‘square’ batteries regardless of whether they are single use or rechargeable
• used by consumers or professionals in mobile telephones, portable computers, cordless power tools, toys and household appliances
• not car or other vehicle batteries nor industrial batteries

The vehicles undertaking the kerbside collections will take the bags/boxes containing batteries collected from each household back to a local depot.

All the bags will be placed into a large container.

Once this large container is full (with about 500kg of batteries) G & P Batteries Ltd will come and take it away, and leave an empty container in its place.

The G & P Batteries Ltd vehicle will take the large container back to the company’s sorting facility in the West Midlands.

The sorting process has recently been partially automated for safety and efficiency reasons.

The large container with all the batteries in it is emptied into a large hopper, which feeds the bags of batteries down onto a conveyor belt.

G & P Batteries Ltd have a workforce of experienced battery sorters who will open the bags, and identify the chemistry of each battery.

The experience these sorters have in recognising different battery chemistries, allows each man to sort about one tonne of batteries per day.

Any batteries that are not immediately recognised are put on one side for later analysis, which can include contacting the manufacturer (if one can be identified) to determine the chemistry of the cell.

Once a sorting facility reaches a volume in excess of 5,000 tonnes per year, some
automated processes can become cost effective.

There are limitations on their effectiveness, and some professionals in the industry argue against any automation in the sorting process from a safety perspective.

The automatic processes can only sort battery cells (AAA, AA, C, D, etc). Any pack or other shaped battery has to be manually removed from the process before sorting, then using either the electromagnetic properties or X-rays combined with the weight of each cell, its chemistry is identified.

One problem that these automatic processes can have is difficulty in distinguishing between a battery cell and, say, a bullet or shotgun cartridge. Such contamination has been known, both in France and the UK, and thus from a safety perspective, some people argue against any type of automation.

The batteries are sorted into the various chemistries. The main groups are:

• Alkaline/Zinc carbon
• Nickel Cadmium (NiCd)
• Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH)
• Lithium Ion rechargeables (Li-ion)
• Single use lithium
• Button Cells (Mercury and Silver Oxide)

Batteries of the same type are stored until enough have been gathered to make a cost-effective shipment to the recycler of that particular battery type.

The amount required for a cost-effective shipment will depend on the location of the recycling plant. For example, Alkaline batteries are recycled in the UK, and 10 tonnes will constitute a cost-effective shipment, whereas Nickel Cadmium batteries are recycled in France, and 25 tonnes are required before a shipment is merited.

Batteries currently sent to Europe are:

• Nickel Cadmium
• Single use (primary) Lithium

All others are fully or partially recycled in the UK.

Because for these batteries there are no recycling facilities in the UK.

In the case of Nickel Cadmium, this is likely to stay the situation, as due to their declining use there just aren’t enough waste batteries to make a recycling facility commercially viable.

In the case of single use lithium, it is likely that at least the first stages of recycling will be undertaken in UK in the not too distant future. These batteries need special handling, are fairly new and there aren’t very many coming through the waste stream yet, but they are increasing in numbers.