Don't Throw Away Old Batteries Because They Can Be Changed Into Fertilizer!

Anil - Jun 18, 2020

Scientists have found a method to extract zinc and manganese from old batteries to make them become supplements for producing fertilizer.

It is known that old batteries have posed a threat to the environment for such a long time, but we've failed to find an effective solution to address the problem. Strikingly, a company named Lithium Australia now gets the key to the question, which sounds like music to the ears of environmentalists - it has already worked on a method that recycles metal dust from recovered zinc and manganese to produce a micro-nutrient supplement for plant fertilizers.

Fertilizer Battery — How to effectively recycle old batteries? Lithium Australia now gets the key to the question.

>>> This $5.5 Million Floating Home Can Help Us Survive The Worst Of Climate Change

The Australian company published a press release to announce that they have successfully applied the supplement on potted wheat plants in their lab. The company aims to establish a circular battery economy while still create sustainable and environmentally-friendly materials for battery companies.

Environstream Australia, which is the recycling division of the company, said that 6000 tons of alkaline batteries, equal to 158 million batteries, are sold annually in Australia, and nearly 97% of which are found in landfills when they are expired. Therefore, with the recycling of batteries’ components into fertilizer, Lithium Australia expects to help reduce the carbon footprint created by the battery industry every year.

Fertilizer 2 — Lithium Australia expects to help reduce the carbon footprint created by the battery industry every year.

As usual, the company collects batteries on the smaller end of the scale that can be found in remote controls and toys. They have found a method to extract zinc and manganese from them - the two main components of alkaline batteries - to make them become supplements for producing fertilizer.

Fertilizer 1 — Necessary tests have been already conducted on the newly-developed products

Necessary tests have been already conducted on the newly-developed products in order to prepare for the company’s expansion plans to farmland in western Australia, which is known as Australia’s land of wheat. However, the soil there really lacks zinc and manganese, which motivates the company to apply their fertilizer to make the crops bolster.

For many years, scientists all around the world have racked their brains to come up with a way to dispose of alkaline batteries safely and sustainably. Therefore, Lithium Australian’s innovation is really a step closer to the battery recycling goal while we should learn to revitalize the Earth other than poisoning our planet.