Love4Gaia.com

April 14th, 2011

This entry on efforts to recycle batteries is a follow-up to my previous entry.

I got a chance to speak to Alvin from Battizer the other day. He was very kind to answer some of the burning questions I had about recycling batteries.

Battizer was previously involved in a charity project where they recharged household alkaline batteries (conventionally not rechargeable) for donation to charity organizations. Battizer was able to do so using a recharger prototype (one of its kind here in Singapore, at least for now) that it developed for alkaline batteries. However, there were some difficulties. About 60% of the batteries were wasted because some were damaged, expired or were leaking (and the leak damaged other functional batteries). The batteries had to be properly handled (opposite polarities can’t touch), otherwise it would affect their recharging potential. Because the collection process was resource intensive, the project was eventually stopped. Since then, Battizer has refined the prototype of the alkaline battery recharger, and it is now available in stores like D.I.Y. According to Alvin, some schools in Singapore are making use of the alkaline battery charger to recharge some of their batteries.

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Since I read that rechargeable batteries (they are often Nickel Metal Hydride batteries or Nickel Cadium batteries, and Cadium and Metal Hydrides are toxic) are more toxic than non rechargeable one (i.e. the alkaline batteries), I was very happy to hear about the recharger for the alkaline batteries. But when I asked Alvin if recharging alkaline batteries was the greener thing to do, he said no. The greener thing to do would still be to use rechargeable batteries, or minimize the use of batteries in the first place!

It seems like alkaline batteries can only be recharged for 5 to 10 times before they have to be disposed of, whereas conventional rechargeable batteries can be charged for many as 1000 times (though usually these batteries spoil from mishandling before they can be recharged a thousand times). Hence, the use of rechargeable batteries help to reduce the number of batteries that need to be disposed of.

As mentioned in my previous entry, on the issue of battery disposal, NEA’s approach is to control mercury pollution by batteries by limiting the mercury content of batteries that are sold in Singapore and filtering the toxic gases that are produced from incinerating the batteries. Even if these approaches are to help reduce pollution by batteries to a minimum, there is still a pollution concern if our people do not dispose of their batteries properly (i.e. in the rubbish bin). Rechargeable or non rechargeable batteries that are thrown into drains, rivers or the sea, or dumped onto soil will continue to pollute our environment through the leaking of toxic chemicals.

To cope with the toxicity of rechargeable batteries and the short lifespan of non rechargeable batteries, Alvin shared with me that Battizer has developed a new type of household batteries — Nickel Zinc rechargeable batteries.

Nickel Zinc batteries are not new. According to Wikipedia, Thomas Edison was awarded a U.S. Patent for a rechargeable nickel-zinc battery system in in 1901. Nickel Zinc are also lower in cost,

Nickel Zinc batteries have higher voltages (~1.6 to 1.8V), as compared to its Nickel Cadium or Nickel Metal Hydride counterparts (~1.2 to 1.5V). This higher voltage has the advantage of requiring a smaller current through appliances, and hence helping to reduce occurrences of appliance motors melting as a result of overly high currents.

Nickel Zinc batteries are more environmentally friendly. They do not contain toxic metals like mercury, lead, cadmium or metal hydrides, which are also difficult to recycle. On the other hand, Nickel and Zinc are commonly occurring elements in nature and can be fully recycled. Nickel Zinc batteries also do not contain flammable materials.

In fact, Nickel Zinc batteries are not only good alternatives to household batteries. They also have the potential to replace lead acid batteries. These Nickel Zinc batteries have the advantage of having higher energy-to-mass ratio and higher power-to-mass ratio, especially when compared to lead acid batteries. This means that the batteries are 75% lighter for the same amount of power released.

So maybe for us extensive battery users out there, it is time to consider switching to rechargeable Nickel Zinc batteries, rather than use non rechargeable alkaline batteries or rechargeable but toxic Nickel Cadium or Nickel Metal Hydrides batteries.

And hopefully, one day, Singapore would be able to send its used batteries for recycling (used batteries used to be collected in Singapore, until the single company doing the collection closed down). In this way, useful materials like Nickel could be retrieved and reuse, and we can reduce the trash we generate, and contribute less to global warming.

If you have any experience with the use of the Nickel Zinc batteries, please do share with me. I would love to hear about your experience.

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Tags: recycle batteries, recycling, sustainable living
Posted in Developments in Green Technology, Recycling Resources | 9 Comments »