Finding cleaner and greener ways to recycle batteries of all types will play an important part in creating a circular economy.
A linear economy which sees us extract resources, make things, use them and throw them away is simply not sustainable. This ‘take-make-waste’ approach must change in favour of a circular model, where we design out waste and pollution and keep products and materials in use.
The development of a circular economy requires us to rethink how we manage resources, how we make and use products and what we do with the materials afterwards. Recycling is a crucial part of this process.
For many materials it is a challenge to encourage people to recycle but lead acid battery recycling has been around since the 19th century, driven by the desire to extract and reuse the lead.
If a battery is recycled at the end of its useful life, the plastics and metals can be extracted and reused. And as we reuse more of these metals in the creation of batteries, we reduce the need to extract metals from the earth.
The challenge, however, is developing technology that is as clean and green as possible so that the process of recycling itself does not contribute to excess carbon emissions.
Low carbon battery recycling
In the UK, many batteries are shipped abroad to be recycled, particularly lithium ion batteries. The move to electric vehicles will create a surge in the need to recycle lithium ion batteries over the coming years.
Developing facilities for more recycling to be done in the UK will immediately cut down on the carbon emissions from battery transport.
The traditional battery recycling process itself also requires the use of high temperatures and lots of energy which causes yet more carbon emissions.
The future
At Fenix Battery Recycling we are committed to making the battery recycling process much more sustainable.
The first step is to ensure more battery recycling is done here in the UK, cutting down on the carbon emissions caused by battery transportation.
We will be offering alkaline battery recycling from October 2020 followed by lithium ion battery recycling by early 2021.
We also want to make the process as sustainable as possible and will be researching new low carbon, low energy technologies at our state-of-the-art facilities in the West Midlands.
We are working towards a zero-waste future, where battery recycling is as low energy and low carbon as possible.
