Alkaline/Primary Battery Question

Hello,

I am new to the scrap forum and fairly new to scrapping.

I am a college student in the Midwest that started hauling scrap about a year ago. I am doing a lot agriculture lots or farms.

Recently I got a connection to 10+ tons of mixed AA, AAA, C, D, etc batteries that are a mix of alkaline & lithium & other primary batteries a month.

I have looked on the forum and haven't really found anything recent posted.

I can get the first ton or so for free and then I can pick up the rest for cheap because the place I want to get them from is currently land filling them at a fairly high cost.

What I would like to do is purchase the batteries, sort them by chemistry (Li Ion, Alkaline, etc.), and then ship the batteries to a recycler. The place I will be getting them from cannot afford to sort them by chemistry because of their cost of union labor (Every employee is at least $30/hour).

I have found batteryrecycling which is a website (add . com, i am not allowed to post links yet). Has anyone worked with them?

But it doesn't seem like they are necessarily the right market because they sort them for me (profits would be higher if I sorted).

My question is would anyone like to share who they sell too? I have found multiple places that buy batteries but they are all scrap yards that sell them to someone else and they are not in my area. If anyone could give me some insight that would be awesome.



Lastly does anyone know the process of recycling alkaline batteries? Just wondering out of curiosity. I was thinking something like they shred the batteries, run that under a magnet, run the zinc and manganese under an eddy current to separate it from the garbage, and then get rid of the garbage. Is this about what happens?

Thanks a ton!

Only places I've seen that do anything with the alkaline do it for free. The other types, you could check the buyers on here, or your own an decide if the pricing is worth your time, that is if anyone is buying those types.

Only batteries I mess with are, cell phone, laptop and Automotive. The rest I just toss in a bucket till I figure out what to do with them.

As always YMMV, and good luck!

Sirscrapalot - Keeper of the traveling cooler.

Looking at the link - batteryrecycling "accepts" batteries, but I did not see that they "pay" for batteries. Throw the alkaline batteries in with your shred a little at a time. The refining process will deal with them just fine.

Almost 7 years in the scrapping business and have not yet found a buyer for alkaline batteries. I have a buyer for cell phone and laptop batteries and some Nimh and NiCad but that's it. If you find a buyer please let use all know. Good luck.

Quick question, if I would say pack up the truck and head to Mexico ($5 a day labor) could I pay people to sort the alkaline batteries from the other batteries, sell the other ones, and then with the alkaline (90%+ of the batteries) pay the cheap labor to break apart the batteries with hammers and then separate the steel from the zinc/manganese with magnets? From what I can understand is they shred the batteries and then separate the materials with a magnet, so same process just a heck of a lot cheaper to start.

Thoughts?

It is not hazardous waste, with proper ventilation the facility would be safe, if we do it in the US I am sure it is environmentally safe (at least to EPA standards). The reason we would be in Mexico is because of labor costs, not because of environmental laws in Mexico.

one place in town here was paying 10 cents a pound for them so im sure they are not the only ones. google it and see what comes up?

I figured out a way to economically separate the materials in the batteries in the US. How many batteries (alkaline only) do you guys have?

Also, does anyone know if people buy zinc/manganese mix?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Electrowaste

You should create this niche market and we can all sell our batteries to you!

Yes, what Electrowaste said.

Probably enough around here to see if this will work for you...

Im intrested in the cellphone battery buyer can you tell me his name or site?

This might be a stupid idea, but what about trying to contact the battery manufactures and see if they want them. If it's there own batteries then maybe they can reuse the electrolyte and zinc.

Theres a buyer on the forums that buys these at $0.30/lb but I'm not sure if its on his thread or not, I asked him for a full price list and they were on it.