Where does it go?

Paper Round uses G&P Batteries, the largest nation-wide collector of waste non-lead acid batteries in the UK with a plant in West Bromwich. The company is fully licensed to handle all types of non lead acid batteries, both rechargeable and single-use including:

Nickel Cadmium	Alkaline Manganese
Nickel Metal Hydride	Silver Oxide
Lithium	Zinc Carbon
Lithium Ion	Mercury Oxide

Each battery chemistry requires a different recycling process to achieve the most effective recovery of material. Recycling processes fall into two basic categories, pyrometallurgical, where a furnace is used to recover the metals and hydrometallurgical, where the metals are recovered via chemical methods.

Lead can be recovered by either separating the different materials that make up the battery (lead, plastics, acid, etc.) prior to metallurgical processing. Alternatively, batteries can be processed as a whole through heat treatment in a particular type of furnace with metals being recovered at the end of his process.

NiCd batteries can be reprocessed through a similar thermal technique, which recovers cadmium and iron-nickel for steel production.

Batteries containing mercury (button cells) are most commonly processed using a vacuum-thermal treatment, in which the mercury vaporises. It condenses and eventually solidifies when temperatures are reduced and can then be reintroduced into the material cycle.

NiMH batteries are reprocessed by mechanically separating the individual materials (plastic, hydrogen and nickel) within a vacuum chamber to prevent the escape of hydrogen. The output of this process is a product with high nickel content which can be used in the manufacture of stainless steel.

Li-Ion batteries are currently reprocessed through pyrolysis (heat treatment) with the primary recovery the metal content.

Zinc-carbon/air and alkaline-manganese batteries can be reprocessed using a number of different methods, which include smelting and other thermal-metallurgical processes to recover the metal content (particularly zinc).