Second-Life Uses for Batteries

Batteries often get a bad rap, since they’re associated with toxic heavy metals, acid, and other pollution that can leak into the environment if they are not properly disposed of, i.e., put in a landfill. The upside is that batteries are some of the MOST recyclable items we use, often being 99 or 100% recycled into a new product!

I’d like to take a moment to shine a light on lead batteries, an unsung hero often viewed with suspicion in the environmental world. Although lead has numerous documented, detrimental effects on health and development, and is not a thing we really want to come into contact with on a daily basis (shout out to the IH folks!), there’s a reason it is so widely used, AND it’s a recycling superstar to boot!

Lead Acid Batteries yield the following materials:

  • Plastic, often used to make new battery casings
  • Lead, generally used to make new batteries
  • Water (seriously!) that is treated to clean-water standards and released into the sewer system
  • Sodium sulfate, which is used in laundry detergent, glass, and textile manufacturing

Lead-based batteries can be infinitely recycled. They are used to store renewable energy from wind turbines and solar panels, power over 1 billion vehicles worldwide, are used in 100% of hybrid vehicles, and, by 2020, will save the equivalent of 25 billion kg of CO2 by their use in vehicles.

To learn about the many second-life uses of lead and other types of batteries, you can explore these links:

http://www.gopherresource.com/what-we-do/power-of-recycling/recycling-facts.html

http://www.gopherresource.com/what-we-do/battery-recycling-process.html

http://www.batteryrecycling.com/Battery+Recycling+Process