Lead battery maker East Penn Canada and recycling firm Terrapure Environmental have received a project-of-the-year award for their closed-loop, circular-economy approach to lead battery recycling.
The Environment + Energy Leader Award recognised the firms service that improves environmental management while increasing the bottom line.
East Penn Canada sends used lead batteries to Terrapure who breaks them before recycling the base components, including the lead.
The lead is refined to East Penn’s specifications before being returned to its battery manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania for use in new batteries.
Terrapure’s closed-loop recycling takes 60% less energy to produce recycled lead.
Ross Atkinson, senior vice president of Battery Recycling at Terrapure, said: “This approach is a real win-win. It provides East Penn a closed-loop recycling process for their batteries, ensuring a beneficial reuse of a valuable commodity, while also helping preserve a finite natural resource.”
An award judge said building a closed-loop circular-economy system was a significant challenge and expense and E+E and East Penn’s entry provided multiple environmental management results, including preventing waste and promoting reuse, reduced energy consumption for production, and reduced waste to landfill.”
Terrapure receives around 10 million batteries a year and produces 125,000 metric tonnes of recycled lead per year, recovering 99% of lead batteries in Canada.
