How to recycle waste batteries abroad

Some developed countries abroad have carried out a series of active explorations in recycling waste batteries and have accumulated a lot of good experience.

According to environmental experts, in order to strengthen the management of waste battery recycling, Germany implemented a new regulation for waste battery recycling. The regulation requires consumers to send used batteries, such as dry batteries and button batteries, to the store or the recycling station for recycling. The store and the waste collection station must accept the waste battery unconditionally and transfer it to the processing factory for recycling. At the same time, they also implement a deposit system for toxic nickel-cadmium batteries and mercury-containing batteries, that is, consumers will have to pay a certain deposit for each battery they purchase. When the consumer holds the used battery for replacement, the deposit can be automatically deducted from the price.

A "wet-treatment" plant has been built in the suburbs of Magdeburg, Germany. In addition to lead-acid batteries, all types of batteries are dissolved in sulfuric acid, and then various metals are extracted from the solution by means of ion resins. The obtained raw material is purer than the heat treatment method, so the price is higher in the market, and 95% of the various substances contained in the battery can be extracted, and the sorting link can also be omitted. The annual processing capacity of this device is up to 7,500 tons.

In the treatment of spent batteries, there are two factories in Switzerland that specialize in processing and using old batteries. One of the factories takes the method of grinding old batteries and sending them to the furnace for heating. At this time, volatile mercury can be extracted and the temperature can be increased. At high temperatures, zinc also evaporates. After manganese and iron are fused, it becomes the manganese-iron alloy required for steelmaking. This factory can process 2,000 tons of waste batteries a year, and can obtain 780 tons of manganese iron alloy, 400 tons of zinc and 3 tons of mercury. Another factory extracts iron directly from batteries, and sells metal mixtures such as manganese oxide, zinc oxide, copper oxide, and nickel oxide directly as metal scrap.

The main business of a company built in Hokkaido, Japan, is spent battery disposal and waste fluorescent lamp processing. Each year, they have purchased 1.3 million tons of waste batteries from the country. 93% of the collection methods are collected by non-governmental environmental protection organizations, and 7% are collected by various manufacturers. This business was carried out in 1985 and the current amount of purification has been increasing. In the past, mercury was mainly recovered. However, at present, domestic batteries in Japan do not contain mercury. The main purpose is to recover the battery's iron shell and other metal raw materials, and to develop and manufacture secondary products. For example, one of the products can be used for the TV display tube. .

In addition, some countries have also formulated some related policies. For example, in the United States and Japan, spent batteries are recycled and processed by enterprises. Each ton of the government pays a certain subsidy. In Korea, manufacturers of batteries produce a certain amount of deposit for each ton, which is used by recyclers and processors. Designate a special factory for processing. In other countries, the battery manufacturing enterprises are levied on the environmental treatment tax or the waste battery processing companies are exempted from taxation.