Lead-Acid Batteries
The introduction of new European Commission Directives for Batteries and Accumulators and End of Life Vehicles will impact upon the present arrangements for recycling lead-acid batteries in Wales.
These directives are proposed for the purpose of securing environmental gains from the control of hazardous lead and sulphuric acid and their recovery for reprocessing, and with the use of recovered rather than virgin materials.
The expected requirements will impose financial costs associated with additional separation, storage, collection, and transport activities as well as with the recycling process and the disposal of residues.
There will be environmental impacts accruing from the additional activities required to separate, collect and recycle lead-acid batteries, including the need to provide secure containers, safe transport to recycling facilities and controlled processing.
The Environment Agency Strategic Waste Management Assessment 2000: Wales estimates that the annual recycling rate for lead acid batteries is 67%, and our research estimates total lead-acid battery arisings in Wales for the year 2001 at 11,072 tonnes. As a result some 3654 tonnes of valuable lead resources are lost to manufacturing, further compounded by the serious consequences of leakage of this quantity of a highly toxic heavy metal into the environment.
The fact that the only two reprocessors of lead-acid batteries in the UK are each based a long distance away from Wales in Derbyshire and Kent makes the collection of waste lead-acid batteries in Wales less viable due to the high cost of transport.
There are four major lead-acid battery manufacturing facilities in South Wales, Exide, Fiamm, Hawker and Yuasa, giving 5,615 tonnes of lead waste arisings last year all of which had to travel to Derbyshire or Kent for reprocessing.
Methods of Recycling
Recycling of lead acid batteries involves breaking the batteries down into various components and recycling these individual components, as opposed to finding any use for the whole waste product.
A substantial proportion of lead consumed in the world is secondary lead recovered after initial use is over. The best example of this is the lead-acid battery, the manufacture of which accounts for 60% of lead used and the recycling rate in some areas exceeds 95% making it one of the world’s leading recycled commodities.
There are currently two waste lead-acid battery-reprocessing facilities in the UK, which operate slightly differently in terms of the methods of recycling batteries. One method involves whole batteries being fed into a battery breaker, crushed and separated into their various components. The metallic lead from the grids, lugs, and poles is reduced to small pieces for onward processing in the Isasmelt furnace. The oxide paste is de-sulphurised prior to smelting and the acid is neutralized during the de-sulphurising process before being filtered into the effluent plant. Finally the polypropylene (plastic) chips are transported to another reprocessor for recovery and recycling.
The second method involves using an M A breaker to crush the battery case and a flotation process to separate the components. The polypropylene (plastic) case material is also recycled and the acid reclaimed. Only the internal separators are rendered inert and disposed to landfill.
