Battery Recycling

this program is made possible by the cities of Palm Springs Cathedral City and Palm Desert hey what I'm Joel Green and welcome to curiosity quest goes green the show that explores with you the viewer are curious Beth now today our quests that are came to us from Los Angeles California le wrote dear jewel I'm curious how do they recycle batteries and water batteries made up well le what a great question think about how many things in our lives are powered by batteries from cars to computers to toys well because of you we've made our way out here to battery solutions and how Michigan we're going to learn how batteries get recycled so let's begin today's curiosity quest goes green so I'm here with Justin for battery solutions now Justin this is pretty cool because we get this letter a lot how do you recycle batteries and that's what you guys do exactly tell us about your company about this process well we were founded about 19 years ago and to start off mostly Inlet acid batteries in our owner and our present ownership I decided to branch out and get more into dry cell batteries which would be your alkaline stuff like double e's triple a's so it kind of branched out got into that and so now we kind of do every type of battery okay then we say every time that car batteries are batteries forklift batteries or electric car batteries oh wow okay you have the most unique battery recycling process in the business is that what I'm understanding exactly it's a it's a new process and it's actually it's one of the cleanest and greenest in the world and so I understand we're gonna be able to recycle what 87% of battery 91% of better you have never actually point we were cycle a hard beside the battery no we're good zero landfill I'll set you up there now you saw that right every part of the battery head and that's our that's our trusted guard dog Lucy okay okay so she's part of the the won't reduce you later she's very nice that's awesome so we're gonna learn about how we're recycling battery yeah alright let's do so let's do it here's your fun fact if you consider every conceivable place a battery can be used then it's probable that there are hundreds of billions of batteries in the world today so there are about what five hundred six hundred battery second places in the US actually no Joel is only a couple is a handful United States are actually processing batteries here really yes Wow no so you told me that all the batteries that we recycle at our house only going to a few places in the US correct and that that's the problem out people are recycling most of those batteries are probably going in the landfills but the ones that are being recycled are only going to a few handful recyclers United States now I live in California and we're not supposed to put any battery in our trashcan that goes to the landfill correct is that the same on all the addition acids or the small handful of states that have enacted those same laws to prevent any type of battery from ending up in landfills unfortunately it's only a small number of states that are doing that so I'm in most states it's perfectly within the law to unfortunately to throw away batteries improving landfills now tell us why is it bad to put batteries in the land because you can use them again I don't know I guess because it can cause a fire because they leak acid and it would corrode and poison our ground in our water it could be broccoli embalming they'd be there because that's wasting batteries and they got a boy again then they gotta do it again again zoom again because you shall be recycling there's only so many place you can throw away things and this is and batteries we're not biodegradable so you know you've got things like metals zinc nickel cobalt things like that that are non biodegradable it can also contaminate groundwater calcium hydroxide and alkaline batteries so those materials in the don't break down in landfills and the other thing is it's something that's taking up space and landfills that can be recycled and recycled at 100% so they're collected from all over the US correct n either roundups or through community efforts or on your own like yeah at my house I have a box absolutely and we can show you those but we have a household box or you can put batteries and that has prepaid shipping on it and you just put in your mailbox and it's mailed to us and recycling for you we just walk and talk about these what are these are batteries these are actually a hybrid batteries so these would go into an electric car really yep most cases they're nickel metal hydride types more recently they're going into what we call lithium ion batteries so changing the technology a little bit for the new cars so we're starting to see some of the new technologies as well as some a lot of the old ones and what did you say those new ones were lithium ion technology with you yeah they recharge we go they actually it's a count of battery and laptops oh my I'm okay now you talk yeah Olivia I am I up huh what is it luteum ion battery used for it to relent Oh save flashlights card powering really powerful things such as DeLoreans to go in the future picture really big stuff that i don't know what they are roller coasters making stuff work for many different things from radios to lights to whatever you needed hearing aids for AED machines for heart attacks all kinds of things do you make him or something you know do they use that in special equipment or hold on just a second Renee I'm getting a call here hold on all south oh wow Wow every type of battery has a different recycling process so the same way you'd recycle a double-a batteries not the same way you recycle luteum ion battery mentioned they all use different processes so you know important key to what we do is sorting those batteries by the different types of batteries before they can be recycled so once they begin the sorting process they're basically dumped into these different tables so they come in mm-hmm and then you just dump them in here no actually they'd be dumped on the table and then they're sorted into here you'll see these are labeled so this is nickel metal hydride and IMH this is lithium so ah yeah nickel metal hydride vehicle metal hydride and we rechargeable battery charging oh man okay yeah I like those terms yes so there's a few different types of retard cell batteries yep and then you kept saying outlined which are the ones that we're familiar with right which you know go by household double a triple A's it's by far the most there's a lot of those batteries out there everybody uses them in their toys and stuff you know we dump a small container you can see how small these other chemistry's are sorted into well you can see how big this box is for the alkaline batteries because that's mostly what we get in here's your fun fact inside a battery heavy metals react with chemicals to produce the batteries power what is this so some customers I prefer to put them in little baggies which is fine alkaline batteries do actually do not have to be taped your bag some others do like the lithium ion we talked about so essentially what happens is you know these Oh sometimes your table yeah you can see how most of these are these you know double a alkaline batteries as we mentioned you know and here's that here's a cell phone battery cell phone blackberry battery pack and that's a lot of cordless phones right that's a NiCad which is a basically nickel cadmium is what that stands for I guess is also rechargeable battery you have your old cell phones or phones most of these arms are alkaline batteries they are all identified with the manufacturers make them they do put what type of battery it is there so that way our solders can no you know what I notice is that a lot of batteries these days actually do say recycle yeah because I what happened actually Joel was in 96 there was a battery act passed and what that acted was one is it got rid of mercury in batteries and then they also started recycling and pressing for more recycling of rechargeable batteries and the reason for that is rechargeable batteries have have more you know toxic metals in them like lithium and and nickel and stuff like that where you don't want that stuff in landfills you know alkaline batteries are relatively harmless because they have zinc and manganese so they're somewhat you know more natural and they use them for fertilizer medicines all kinds of stuff but they wanted to get the mercury out of it and I wanted to get more of the rechargeable batteries out of landfills and so that's that's when they started putting stickers on them and stuff like that really so it's the rechargeable batteries that really create the biggest problem as current absolutely but the catch-22 that is is there's way more alkaline batteries than the rechargeable batteries so as far as landfill space goes they're taking up a lot more space so you can imagine this is just today shipment of mostly your alkaline big batteries Wow right we can open some these other look like look at this unbelievable now how I'm going to take the fill up of that like this or big pots like did not long you know maybe a few days yeah depending on which we get in and but that doesn't take very long yet and we've got you know basically we send these you know to a truckload quantities and 40,000 pound at a time to our other facility for recycling so so we'll see a lot more these at the other facility but that's what they come in just like this I'm really and this way you know when we store them we know exactly what's in it so you know we know when we run this through our process it's only alkaline batteries because these guys do such a great job of so lemme ask you and you've got several yeah well I see one two three four five six seven it was about seven sorting stations right yeah here's your fun fact the first miniature battery was invented in the late 1950s here's all the different types of batteries we've gotten in you know through the years you know starts with the little small ones over here which are called silver oxide I'm trying to like like make them relevant and understandable for everyone out here these would be in a camera's really a camera's a real popular thing watch batteries you'll come in like a button so you'll see the one there that's little button energizer in the top right corner yep so that will go like in a bat or watch and then here's here's your mercury which we talked about now you see what you notice there is how old those are yeah so all those batteries were manufactured for 1996 basically so the lead again to give everyone an example what they're in is what computers and what else computer emergency lighting so you know when those you have those lights in your office when the when the power goes down or your school those lights will kick on yeah those if the power's out they need to be powered by something they'll be powered by one of these LED acid bat now I'm goona brothers because you could be a test at the event exactly yeah I salute the M with him we know the computers and cell phones and you're exactly right it also you're learning already yeah I'm getting down those are one of the longest lasting batteries there's two types of lithium batteries so there's a lithium ion and there's what we call primary lithium okay no now there's through different choosers right yeah you almost had it and I threw your curveball but the primary looking is what you'll see here are not rechargeable so they're one-time use batteries so they do last longer than any other battery but they're not rechargeable once they're dead they're dead it works pretty - they are they're very expensive because they last longer and lithium is an expensive substance to use to put into batter okay okay and then we have these now I recognize the base of these these are like in the bottom of like cordless drills exactly so this is the most popular battery there is probably now as far as rechargeables go which is relatively new is the lithium ion which is the other one we talked about so these are rechargeable so there's still glyph t and base batteries the difference is that you can recharge the batteries and use them over and over again so of all these batteries is there a battery that is like more environmentally sound more inviting not necessarily I mean none of that you don't want to have any these batteries in landfills like I said because we're not biodegradable and a lot of the metals in these like nickel and cobalt even lithium can be hazardous so here so to answer your question no there is really no safe batter for landfilling now some argue that alkaline batteries are the safest put in landfill because they have less toxins in them and there is some truth of that but the bottom line is it's landfill space so they just still do a potassium hydroxide in which I don't anybody wants to drink you know it gets in the river on water or something like that so hydrogen I just chemistry class yeah batteries can be recycled and people need to know that so you don't have to throw them away sure now what I don't see up here is alkaline okay yeah because there's a it's the most you know like I said that the most abundant batteries so just like any of everybody everybody knows about oxide everybody knows want to see in a D and a double unit Triple A is yes but so yeah there's no outline board here because because basically alkaline comes in a pretty standard measurement there's only a you know five or six base types of outline as you see where this board is here there's all kinds of different ways you can mold and make these different battery packs and different uses where outlines pretty much you have the same a double a triple sec can you name alone yeah you guys can name double a triple a big small/medium this C D tall long C double a triple a D and eight nine volts tiny ginormous alright so we'll start with a smallest I guess there we go right so the Triple A yeah doubled up way then you have been a small orders those nine volt right asked me yeah that's not a nine volt then you've got the sees the C's then in the do these economic yes and they also make what we call a lantern battery which is they kind of square ones you've seen that's one yeah so but that's it just easier these are big light batteries yes that matter exotic no the whole book whole bag of them were these those are the kits we sell to put batteries in to send back to us we talked about earlier how we get batteries back to us well this is one of those common ways a lot of small companies large companies households they can purchase these these kits on our website they're all inclusive so you include shipping and handling and you also get recycling ticket with some of them which states the batteries were recycled they were available on our website battery cycling comm and they range in price from $25 for the smallest one all the way up to $79 for a large pail like that so this this answers the question because the most common question about battery recycling that we get and a lot of places we go to in the landfills and recycled lenses how do you recycle that putting it in their cycle can or something like that I think we recycle it the way we recycle bottles I don't take it to a recycling center you have to take it to the EU waste at the city so that's only a few days a week you can take it there and you can't throw it in trash can cuz that's the bad thing clear no recycling place you put it in a trash can I use it over and over again Melissa what do we do with all the batteries we take out the battery packs when we're traveling we're travelling we take them home with us seriously we never throw them in the trash can never because I don't know what the rules are the different states but in my state I know I can't throw in the trash can so I bring it back stick it in my box right black demons want a major issue so like I said I will use coffee Candlebox in our house some people put these right in their garage you know or a closet they just can't see it out of the way and every time they have a battery they just throw it in there now people are gonna say I know they're gonna say they said okay this is great but it costs them exactly there's a fee involved and and you said something be on camera that action is pretty cool you say yeah it does cost a few dollars to recycle batteries yeah unfortunately you know recycling is attached to free and that's not always the case you know things like glass and metals those things have value they be recycled as you guys have been some other recycling facilities yeah I see where that stuff has value unfortunately batteries can you know fortunately there's no value to batteries although they can be recycled 100% and can be recycled what you get out of them after the recycle doesn't really have a value so the problem is we can't you know we can't sell the ventrac to make the commodity cost of shipping you saw the guys sorting there yeah so those are all big costs of ours and the boxes that it's so that the end material doesn't doesn't generate enough profit to cover the cost of all shirt J overhead and and shipping everything like that so for a small fee you know we make it we try to make it affordable though I mean these range in price from twenty four ninety five to seventy four dollars for a big big bucket like this yet if you break that out too you know it's gonna be a couple bucks a month you know and to keep them from landfills and and people you know are happy to do that to know that they're you know not not ending up in their land absolutely it's a couple bucks to do the right thing just give them it that's pretty much a couple bucks to do the right thing here's your fun fact Americans purchased nearly three billion dry cell batteries every year to power radios toys cellular phones watches laptop computers and portable power tools blue is all the batteries toy batteries more toys and then more twice so you saw these being sort of sort at the last facility yeah into these big boxes so then says this is the final step so this actually came from that other warehouse to our to our location here will then be put in the machine for recycling it was crazy as a song being sorted this box was filled up by human hand yes it was one at a time over and over so we know what these are all alkaline or what we call peer stream of alkaline so we know when you put these in the machine it's only those type of batteries okay now what is alkaline did I don't we briefly said it but what exactly is alkaline well we'll show you the components of a layer but essentially it's a very simple battery which which makes it most inexpensive battery and the most popular one is it really contains zinc manganese potassium hydroxide which is the electrolyte and then it has a steel casing that's pretty much what makes up a battery so we'll we'll see those materials when they get into the recycling process you know it's funny because what you just said kind of describe what energy drinks off how I'm different right yeah see in electrolytes or the battery yeah right yeah that's why the energy alright so we're gonna see the inside of these geysers but I've always wanted I see them corroded but I never know it'd be inside of it oh yeah we'll show you what's the first step now we'll show you take you over the process and we'll show you how they get fed into the machine big blue curtain here what are batteries made of I think probably minerals or like little stuff that like science the metal iron metal cardboard acid I don't know a lot of batteries are LED and some type of chemical within it metal so everything's going on inside of this yeah you can hear it running now that's basis of a scene running and breaking up the batteries into the different components Wow well basically that that big box and we were just looking at it yeah dumped into this machine here so lift it up all 3,000 pounds of it wants it up dumps it into the what we call a hopper here yeah this is vibrations you can see how it's vibrating yeah so that basically releases you know a few batteries at a time so you don't get too many in there and they go into the lolipop with the shredder the magnets will separate sit so behind this curtain is what shredders exactly they break them in they break them into a smaller piece from here and then they goes into the actual magnitude where it really grinds it up even more so it's a few different steps before they get ground up into little pieces we'll see later now why the curtain basically it just it makes it cleaner you know so you don't we not getting as much dust and things like that out here and noise here's your fun fact the world's largest battery was built in Fairbanks Alaska and weighed over 1,400 tons I see you know what batteries look like typically we're about to see what they look like when they're all separated exactly that's the zinc manganese patent rate so it's a very fine powdery substance that comes out there and then you've got your steel here a paper plastic mixture all it all from that into this in what a couple couple seconds yeah not long I mean yeah let's in a minute then I see all these boxes out here these are alkaline batteries waiting to be recycled okay and it's just what magnesium and then here's your think negative Museum I'm saying it wrong right yeah it's a manganese nightmare it is right totally different that I'd easier zinc manganese concentrate and that's kind of it's actually warm sometimes when it comes either because all the friction and what will the zinc the this manganese become or be useful zinc can be used in a variety of things like medicines fertilizers I mean there's ink is a very popular compounding these and it can be we used to make new batteries so you're telling me that stop coming out as batteries could be put back at our medicine absolutely yeah refill it up and that's it again we're saving the you know the environment by not having to remind that both materials and being reused a pig more give me a wait a minute wait a minute someone gives me only energy with engines in the same thing that goes in your batteries the same thing that goes in from your medicines that's great give me it companies allowing you to say that right yes Wow all right now what about the metals what do you do to all the metals three use for anything from construction they use it for rebar you know that it's a rod that goes into cement that it reinforces tobacco still can be used for any variety of things so you give the steel to office all that you have a mill basically no muck they'll basically make it into steel bars or whatever they want with it alright so Justin in here is what it was sitting in a paper plastic mixture it's a paper plastic mixture huh also is like the top of the batteries in the yeah but you know the cover the Duracell cover whatever kind of cover has energizer now a lot of covers in here yeah it's a lot of batteries that's a lot of battery why is everything looked black now yeah would be good because of the zinc in the manganese you know that's it's a black mass so it can turns everything black in the more this is all going to the landfill you said no that's the landfill to actually go to a plastic paper recycler and it actually it'll be filtered and refined and not and click bait essentially cleaned up the you know behind this curtain to you would tell me about the other part of this being green was that about zero emissions exactly so this is you know typically before when when alkaline batteries were recycled it was free to use a thermal process or a key process so it was great your recycling your batteries and a growing landfills but it's kind of a catch-22 because it was kind of a messy way to recycle them there was you know there's a lot of what we call a mission so you know gas is getting released into the air things like that whether it had be vented and stuff like that this is all enclosed you can see everything - curtain is behind that curtain there's nothing going off into the air there we go look yeah detective no offense or anything like that so it's all self-contained and that's what makes it green the most green process on the planet is all self-contained in the zero emissions of all here's your fun fact did you know evidence of batteries date back over two thousand years so this is a warehouse you said with the batteries you're recycling right now correct me this is where we store them you know they're sorta at the other of Scilly we're at they're stored here and then they're sent into the other building next door right next door for recycling batteries can be recycled and we have tick we've shown that here today absolutely in most places you know if you're uncertain what to do the best thing to do locally would be to contact to you can locally contact your local household hazardous waste department or solid waste division something like that don't know I mean you contact some of that wherever you're at they'll know where to tell you to you can send your battery we just showed you a solution right battery cycling comm battery solution this is incredible but like you said the goal will be to fill this up 10 times episodes I'm gonna do that this year yeah let's try to do that this month let's try that's our goal hey we do that Justin I want to thank you my hands are dirty mine are too Wow look at that man yeah that's a more dirty yeah but I can clean mindful that's clean look at how 300 bad I will seriously thank you very much they are they Justin and everyone out here battery solutions for teaching us how and what happens to the recycling process and batteries and I especially want to thank you Ellie for setting us on today's curiosity quest goes greed now if there's something that you're curious about why don't you let me hear from you go to curiosity quest org click on the send a sonic quest link and simply tell me what you're curious about and it could be you that sends us on our next green adventure now remember this is our planet and it's our responsibility to take care of it I wonder have you gone green I'm Joel Green and I'll see you next time that is a great when you're feeling earlier I thought they were to change your batteries out yeah you know it's a good idea can you do that for every are you sticking on my back there yeah you're gonna get really good really good see it work thank you protected I love it very exclusive here in this give this bitch goodness goodness goodness Fanny right now so great I love the better together I think it we're not nothing this program is made possible by the cities of Palm Springs Cathedral City and Palm Desert if you'd like to order a copy of this episode or a previous episode visit us at WWDC org

Channel: curiosityquest

Views: 230,626

Rating: 4.0454865 out of 5

Keywords: Battery Recycling, battery, how to make batteries, recycling, curiosity quest, joel greene, battery solutions, Michigan (US State), Green, going green, recycling batteries, how to recycle batteries, electronic waste, e waste recycling, ewaste recycling, e waste, batteries

Id: lMn-sDvgj4Q

Length: 25min 51sec (1551 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 16 2013