Resource Recycling Magazine: OEMs organize to recover batteries

## OEMs organize to recover batteries

_By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling_

Four large battery companies have partnered to from a stewardship organization for their end-of-life products. Now they are looking for someone to help run it.

Formed last year by battery makers Duracell, Energizer, Panasonic and Rayovac, the Corporation for Battery Recycling (CBR) is a nonprofit organization aimed at shaping a voluntary program to collect spent batteries for recycling.

Now the CBR has issued a [RFP][1] for a business partner to manage a program that will collect and recycle household batteries. The new program will be national in scope and will be designed to be convenient for consumers. The entity selected to run the program will be required to launch a public outreach campaign to educate and motivate consumers to recycle batteries. The CBR intends for the program to produce a net environmental positive by recycling batteries when measured against a baseline impact of landfilling them.

The national program will focus on the collection of all consumer batteries and recycling of primary cylindrical and prismatic alkaline manganese, zinc carbon, and lithium batteries up to a maximum of 2 kilograms and zinc air, silver oxide, alkaline manganese and lithium button/coin cells.

Preliminary research conducted by CBR indicated that consumers typically don't differentiate between primary batteries and others, so the response must include a solution for other batteries (i.e. rechargeables, lithium thionyl chloride, etc.) that are likely to appear in collection channels.

Prior to the formation of the CBR, the battery companies commissioned a full life-cycle analysis of their products by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The analysis concluded that under the right circumstances, collection and recycling could be a net positive for the environment.

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[1]: http://recyclebattery.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/RFP-for-Stewardship-Organization.pdf
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[3]: http://www.sdslogistics.com/quick-quote?src=forlifebannerrecycling
[4]: http://www.resource-recycling.com/images/e-newsletterimages/RRe-news071312.html

URL: http://resource-recycling.com/node/2913