(513) Rechargeable battery recycle box [調べる]
I knew of this box from an information flyer of my community a few weeks ago. It is sometimes very hard to sort household garbage. I didn't know how to dispose of rechargeable batteries. I am a kind of man who keep social rules. So, I've kept two dead rechargeable batteries for a long time. One is PC's battery for two years, and the other is a battery of a cleaning robot, for more than three years. I was very glad to put them into the recycle box in the Habu branch of the Matsuyama City government.
I found more detailed information at the site of BAJ (the Battery Association of Japan).
Rechargeable batteries primarily use nickel (Ni) and cadmiun (Cd), cobalt (Co), lead (Pb) and other rare resources. Recycling is an effective means of reusing such rare resources without waste. Examples of this are the use of nickel and iron alloy in stainless steel, and the use of cadmium in making new Ni-Cd batteries. Please cooperate with recycling the used rechargeable batteries to make the most of rare resources.
I am using an old MacBook, ten years old. My daughter gave it to me when she replaced it with a new PC. One day, I noticed its touch pad was rising and swelling day by day. Finally, I unscrewed the PC back cover and checked its inside. Its battery was swelled. A new battery was not available, so I gave up replacing it, and removed it from the PC. It was August in 2018. The battery continued to swell after removing from the PC. I can read Li-ion recycle mark on it.
Lithium-ion battery
The lithium-ion battery is a secondary battery with a carbon negative electrode that can absorb and release lithium ions, and a lithium cobalt oxide positive electrode. When compared with Ni-Cd batteries and other similar batteries, lithium-ion batteries have superior features such as higher energy density and voltage. Expensive and rare cobalt and other materials can be recovered from recycled lithium-ion batteries.
The other is the battery of a cleaning robot, Roomba. Ni-MH is read on it.
Nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery
In place of the cadmium negative electrode of Ni-Cd battery, a hydrogen-absorbing alloy that absorbs and releases active materials such as hydrogen is used as the negative electrode. It is a sealed alkaline storage battery, and it has a higher energy density than an Ni-Cd battery. As with Ni-Cd batteries, rare natural resources such as nickel can be recovered from recycled Ni-MH batteries.
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