Close the loop with more life for your car battery

Would you like to know something cool about car batteries? Once they give up on you, they can be recycled and used to produce more batteries. What this does is close the loop on a product that, if disposed of incorrectly, causes detrimental effects to the environment. Which is why recycling of old batteries should be done by trusted battery specialists that have the correct measures and equipment in place.

Each battery differs when it comes to what’s inside, this is largely because they’re used for different cars, trucks or commercial vehicles.

When it comes to their impact on the environment though, there’s no difference. Some of the biggest impacts include,

• Batteries disposed of incorrectly end up in landfills. As the casing corrodes, the chemicals seep out and leach into the soil, which eventually makes its way into our water streams, causing harm to the water supply.
• The lithium contained in certain batteries ends up in landfills, it can create a chemical reaction and fire that burns underground for years. This releases toxins into the air that can affect the health of people who live nearby.
• Metals such as cadmium, nickel, lead and residue from the lead are carcinogenic and contribute to causing cancer in living tissue. This happens when batteries are crushed under the weight of a landfill and make their way to the atmosphere.

The simple way to avoid your battery causing harm to people, animals and the environment is by making sure your old car batteries are recycled correctly like they do at the battery recycling plant built by First National Battery in Benoni.

• The plant treats the various materials in an environmentally friendly manner.
• Each battery goes through a process involving the smelting of lead, neutralising of the acid contained in batteries and a blending kettle that produces specialised alloys which controls environmental emissions.
• The packaging and all materials are repurposed to give a new lease of life to old batteries.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to disposing your battery. The good news is that 95% of batteries are recyclable. When compared to everyday products such as soft drinks, milk and products that have been packaged in plastic, batteries have a lower carbon footprint and can be repurposed for conventional uses.

The next time you replace your battery, have it recycled by South Africa’s trusted battery specialists, Battery Centre .