Scrap Battery Re-cycling is a Huge Success

Scrap Battery Re-cycling

I can remember a time in the not too distant past, when most of the companies that sold batteries, struggled to get rid of their old batteries. I have been selling car batteries for over 40 years now, and other types of batteries for the past 15 years, but I have never known a time when the old batteries were worth so much money.

Going back a few years I can remember an old sales ploy that would give the customer some money back, if they had an old battery to return, a sort of part exchange scheme, and in fact the older guys amongst us will still ask, “Do I get anything for the old battery”. Perhaps some companies still offer the same sales tactic, but I think that in general we keep the money earned from scrap batteries to supplement the lower profits that we make on the new batteries that we sell.

Like most things that we sell in today’s market place the price of batteries have been driven down by the internet, I am not saying that this is a bad thing; in fact it is a good thing for the consumers who can command a good price for a battery online. The best customers for us though are the ones that call into the garage for their battery testing and after buying a new battery, they leave us with their old battery and we can dispose of it in an environmentally friendly way, to its final destination and then re-cycling.

The ones we have problems with though are the golfers? For some reason the golfing fraternity do not to hand in their old battery. For some reason they always want to take it home with them and save it in their garage or other out-building. They must think that some sort of “magic “will resurrect the life back into the old battery. I any of you out there know why they do this please let me know?

Battery re-cycling by the bigger companies

Because of the rise in price of new lead, scrap lead has become a much sort after commodity. Countries are fighting to keep hold of the scrap batteries that are processed and made into new products and great efforts are made to make sure that old batteries are not just thrown away and dumped on landfill sites. In my opinion one of the most famous battery recycling companies is Exide batteries. Exide have got a machine that puts in scrap at one end and you get new batteries at the other end, a great achievement

Johnson Controls are also making huge efforts to secure and maintain the supply of waste batteries. Actually what people do not know is that 97% of all scrap batteries are recycled and companies like Johnson Controls see no reason that this cannot reach the 100% mark. They have taken the step of starting up a new web site in America that tells the public the nearest place to dispose of their old battery,(even golfers). For further reading about the Johnson Controls battery recycling plant… http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/content/us/en/products/power_solutions/global_battery_recycling/our-recycling-facilities/united-states.html/

This is of course in North America, but other similar projects are taking place all over Europe and here in the UK. Scrap batteries are processed and recycled with as much importance as they are in the USA. The old batteries are stripped down to their basic components and are then sent to another plant that converts the waste parts into new batteries. Even the plastic battery casing are ground up and reused to make new http://www.batteryrecycling.com/battery+recycling+process  and is well worth a look at.

batteries. This is why many new batteries have black casings. The old plastic grindings are mixed with new materials which are coloured black. So if you see a white or clear battery, then it is made of brand new materials and is not recycled. I find that a good website that explains about the recycling of different batteries is…

I must admit that I am proud to be in an industry that can say that it can recycle 97% of the waste and perhaps one day the figure will be 100%.

Eric Roberts

Hi I would like to introduce myself. I have worked in the Garage and tyre and I am MD for online battery company www.batteriesontheweb.co.uk. I have worked for a couple for national tyre companies in my younger days, before starting my first business. I now own a garage and MOT testing centre, here in the UK called Pellon Tyre and Auto-centre, and I am a keen blogger about anything to do with cars and their related products that will help my business. We are members of Point-S and Motor-Codes and are also a Unipart Car Care Centre and of course Tyre-safe.

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