Battery Recycling

Tune in to battery recycling. Don't be negative... Do the positive thing! Recycle your batteriesBatteries are collected every two weeks on recycle day at the kerbside from on top of your black box and usually tipped into a side pod on the freighter (some are contained elsewhere). When the freighter returns to the depot they are bulked up to await collection.

How to Recycle Batteries

Many batteries can be recycled, these are shown on the back of the bag that was issued to you.

Batteries to save for recycling: 6v, D, C, AA, AAA, 9v and button. We cannot accept car or similar batteries for recycling

We suggest that you store your button batteries separately from your AA batteries, however on collection day pop them in the bag together and put them out for collection.

After placing your batteries in the bag please seal it by pulling off the tear off strip and folding down the flap, and then place it on top of your paper and card recycling.

What happens next?

Battery recycling plant

Batteryback collect the batteries which are then sent to one of two sites in Belgium where the company REVATECH S.A. recycles them. Revatech as a company recovers and disposes of some 155,000 tonnes of dangerous and non-dangerous industrial waste annually, by mechanical, biological and physico-chemical processes.

REVABAT® is a wet recycling process for alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries. This process, developed by REVATECH, is used to recycle the magnetic (steel) and non-magnetic (zinc and brass) metal fractions, recycle the different components of the "black mass" (zinc, carbon and manganese), and reprocess the plastics. The overall recycling rate is at least 55% of the gross weight of the batteries treated, and is well within the norms contemplated by the European Commission.

The chart below shows the simplistic method of the process followed to recycle as much as possible.

Diagram of battery recycling process

You can find Batteryback in many supermarkets

battery bank bin

It is important to recycle batteries as careless disposal of batteries is hazardous to the environment. The toxic substances can seep into the water supply causing serious health problems.

Recycle for Dover District