recycling batteries

torqueon

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Does anyone know were to recycle lithuim batteries in the Denver Colorado area

Thanks
 
nobody recycles lithium cells yet. maybe after the chinese totally shut off exports and before moly corp opens the mine in california there may be a short period of time where the lithium may be of more value than the recovery costs.
 
dnmun said:
nobody recycles lithium cells yet. maybe after the chinese totally shut off exports and before moly corp opens the mine in california there may be a short period of time where the lithium may be of more value than the recovery costs.

Thanks for info
 
I drove past a Interstate Battery store with a sign saying "recycling batteries"
I had some SLA's a some Ni Cads.
They took them all.

Stop by and see if they will accept your batteries. Better to assume they do and hand them other then to ask them first.
 
like i said there is no recycling of lithium yet because of the cost.

the lead acid and nicads get shipped to china and africa where people burn them to recover the lead. the human and environmental catastrophe it causes is enormous, but unknown in the west.

lithium is not toxic. put them in the trash so they go to the landfill rather than waste more oil driving them around.
 
http://www.call2recycle.org/

Revisited this thread to post this link. Looks like these guys at least recycle LiCo to recover the cobalt. I don't know about the lithium...didn't have time to read very far.
 
dnmun said:
like i said there is no recycling of lithium yet because of the cost.

the lead acid and nicads get shipped to china and africa where people burn them to recover the lead. the human and environmental catastrophe it causes is enormous, but unknown in the west.

lithium is not toxic. put them in the trash so they go to the landfill rather than waste more oil driving them around.
I thought that SLA recycling was one of the most successful. I think one of those "how it's done" basic cable TV shows they showed a recycling plant in the US that did SLAs. A lot of e-waste recycling truly is a problem, but I'm not so sure that this is the case with SLA batteries.
 
folks, cellphone & camera batts are mostly lith-ion and I think they get recycled. I would contact whoever takes cell phone batteries.
I was getting about 20 cents per pound on lead acid.
A local Radio Shack store took my Nicd, though it's not clear if they dispose it or recycle.
 
Toxco in BC said they will recycle EV lithium batteries:

"These batteries [thundersky 200Ah] should be shipped as Hazardous Recyclable Material – UN3480 Lithium Ion Batteries, PG II, Class 9. This also entails use of a manifest and a licensed hazardous waste carrier. We can arrange the freight for you, if required.

Toxco is pleased to quote $3.00 Cdn per pound for the recycling of lithium iron phosphate batteries – this includes our disassembly of the packs. The price is FOB Trail, BC and is based on the gross weight of the shipment. You will be issued a Certificate of Acceptance upon arrival of the material at Trail and then a Certificate of Recycling is issued, once we have completed the recycling."

pretty pricey, about $1200 CAD plus shipping to recycle a EV pack
 
dnmun said:
nobody recycles lithium cells yet

there are quite a number of recyclers for Li Batteries (for instance umicore or batrec) however they don't recycle it for the Li content. Currently it's all about the Co and Cu - that's where the $$$ are. Only a 1-3% of the weight of a Li-ion cell is Li most of the rest is Cu and Al. In the current Co and Cu recovering processes, Li ends up in the slag from where an extraction is quite expensive. Lithium Carbonate, Li2CO3, the base commodity used in global markets, is very cheap. Thus primary Li probably will not be substituted by secondary Li for a long time.
rolf
 
Re the lead recycling, some do get recycled the right way in the US. But really, most go to the thrid world, where the electrolyte is dumped into the local water supply, and 10 year olds stand by melting pots breathing lead vapor. Oughta be a law against exporting such recycling items.
 
Dogman, that's unfortunate.
Most batteries can be recycled and the recycler should pay the consumer per pound such that unlawful disposal is discourage.
 
Best Buy recycles batteries, and all other electronic stuff. In fact, there is a box in the front door of the local BBs with a slot for batteries and one for something else, I forget what. However, if you should have something unusual to be recycled (circuit boards, dead computers, disk drives, microwave ovens, stereos, whatever), just take it to the customer service center and they will gladly take it there (the "front door monitors" get real huffy if you start stuffing anything else4 than what's labelled in the boxes). Disclaimer - I have not tried to recycle a refrigerator or anything of similar size there, yet.

Cameron
 
discharge completetly, then trash can it. No lead, or other funky metals in it.
 
There's ways to recycle lithium cells in Colorado. The link below has some resources.

http://www.ehso.com/RecycleBatteriesElectronicsInColorado.php

Also there's the call2recycle program, but for that you might have to break packs down to the cell level.
 
Advance auto parts rep told me this Saturday they would take my 48v lithium battery pack for recycling. Home Depot is another possibility, but their website say 11 lbs and 300 w maximum.
 
Recycling lithium batteries is difficult and expansive but may be some ideas make it cheaper .

One of my ideas is to freeze them in liquid nitrogen mill them and separe them in density gradient in liquid nitrogen, lithium and lithium graphite is less dense than liquid nitrogen, collectors case and cathode materials are more dense.

Once frozen in liquid nitrogen batteries are btrittle and easy to mill, there is no fire hazard with charged cells all components are frozen, no current can pass.
 
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