This document discusses the recycling of lead-acid batteries and how it has become an environmental success story. Lead-acid batteries contain hazardous materials that could harm the environment if not disposed of properly. However, nearly 80% of each lead-acid battery is made of recycled material, making it one of the most highly recycled consumer products. The recycling process involves smelting the lead plates and reusing the material, neutralizing and processing the battery acid for other uses, and crushing and reprocessing the plastic casing.

1. Lead-Acid Battery
Recycling
An Environmental Success Story

2. What is a battery?
A battery is an energy storage device in which
chemical energy is converted into electricity and
used as a source of power.
Common types include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lithium-ion
Zinc carbon (ZnCO3)
Nickel metal hydrate (NiMH)
Nickel cadmium (NiCD)
Alkaline
Lead-acid
2

3. Lead-acid batteries contain potentially hazardous materials
that — if not disposed of properly — could harm the
environment.
With hundreds of millions of lead-acid batteries in
circulation, we could have been facing an environmental
nightmare; yet lead-acid battery recycling has become one
of today’s great environmental success stories.
3

4. How many lead-acid batteries are out there?
33% of the world’s batteries
are of the lead-acid type
300-350 million lead-acid batteries
are produced annually
(about 1 new lead-acid battery every 11 seconds )
8,000 times higher
than Mt. Everest
4

5. Lead-acid batteries are a $24.9 billion
market world wide
10% of lead-acid batteries are used for
uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
Schneider Electric purchases 44 million lbs.
of lead-acid batteries annually (20 million kg)
2x as heavy as the Eiffel Tower
5

6. Lead-acid batteries are one of the great environmental
success stories
Lead-acid batteries
are the most highly recycled
consumer product
Nearly 80% of each
lead-acid battery is made
of recycled material
Consumer product recycle rates
6

7. How does a lead-acid battery get recycled?
Lead plates are melted down in smelting furnaces.
Molten lead is poured into ingot molds, which are remelted in the manufacture of new plates.
Lead-acid batteries
are composed of
3 recyclable materials
Battery acid may be:
> neutralized, cleaned, treated, tested and released
into the public sewer system
> processed and converted into sodium sulfate, an
odorless white powder used in laundry
detergent, glass, and textile manufacturing
> chemically treated and reused in battery products
Plastic cases & covers are crushed, melted together,
and extruded as pellets to be used in the manufacture
of new cases & covers
7

8. How does a lead-acid battery get recycled?
Find practical how-to guidance on recycling industrial
lead-acid batteries in Schneider Electric’s Data Center
VLRA Battery End-of-Life Recycling Procedures.
Download our free white paper now to learn more.
8