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Energizer Takes on E-waste by Upcycling Wasted Materials
1 Min Read
Battery manufacturer Energizer began its e-waste recycling efforts in 2008, when it began upcycling currently wasted materials and participating in a circular economy.
Energizer was aware that batteries entering the landfill could be crushed and leak harmful materials like nickel, cadmium, lead and cobalt into the world.
By recycling batteries and sticking to its upcycling process, Energizer launched EcoAdvanced, the world’s first battery made with four percent recycled batteries. But creating this new product was not easy.
BusinessGreen has the details:
Batteries are pretty great at being terrible for the environment. Each year, Americans throw away more than 3 billion of them, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
All of this adds up to around 180,000 tons of batteries, of which more than 86,000 tons are single-use alkaline batteries.
What’s more is that batteries are also classified as hazardous waste, thanks to their complicated chemistry. When batteries enter a landfill, their protective casing can be crushed or degraded, cracking open a piñata of harmful materials such as nickel, cadmium, cobalt and lead.
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