Delivering what they say is not something that many organizations do. In an era of social media, it’s easy to jump on the bandwagon. Especially making statements about your commitment to decarbonisation and recycling, without backing it up with a sound operating philosophy.
Indeed, Ecobatt, and the Recycal group of companies are specialist recyclers who have integrated their national operations to be at the forefront of recycling and decarbonisation. The term ‘Environmentally Integrated’ is not a buzzword for this group it’s a reality.
Delivering the Latest Technology
Millions of dollars have been invested in the latest equipment to ensure high levels of mineral and chemical extraction. This includes the latest in robotics, and sorting technology. Importantly the group are in the process of installing the latest in solar panel technology to the roofs of their buildings. Definitely, this will significantly reduce the group’s power usage and the company’s carbon footprint. Furthermore, the solar power collected will be used to charge re-purposed ‘new life’ energy storage batteries. In addition, these batteries will drive the onsite power grid used in the recycling of batteries, e-waste, and mercury.
Solar panels are extensively in use at several facilities and further development of the branch operations is planned. In addition, solar energy will be used to recharge re-purposed EV batteries. This will reduce reliance on base load power that is used in their recycling processes.
The various state branch operations play a key role in ‘pick up’ and collecting of batteries for forwarding to the main Ecobatt operation at Campbellfield. Indeed, the group is constantly striving to achieve an integrated ‘end to end’ solution with all its recycled products.
How it works
For example, Alkaline batteries are recycled with the shredded steel cans shipped to Casting Tasmania for melting into specialised castings for the local and general Australian market. This represents about 30%. of each alkaline battery. Approx 50% of alkaline batteries generate a substance called ‘Black Mass’ which is used by Castings Tasmania in their furnaces. Black Mass contains a variety of metal elements including zinc and manganese, the latter which is used for strengthening steel. Importantly Ecobatt and Eco-ewaste are only interested in the full recovery of critical metals and minerals for reuse. They are not involved in refurbishment of any of the products they collect, including mobile phones and other electrical goods.
The various other types of batteries are recycled for copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel. Many of the best lithium batteries include cobalt and nickel. These can be extracted, recycled, and sold. The high world price for cobalt and nickel reflects the importance, and need, to recycle these batteries responsibly. Each of the battery chemistries has specific recycling processes attached to them, which is a key element of the flexibility and range of battery recycling that Ecobatt can process.
Whilst new technologies and chemistries will be developed, there will continue to be a need to recycle these batteries and recover the inherent metal materials contained within them for reuse and refining. Ecobatt, deliver what they say and are at the leading edge of critical materials and metals recycling.
