KC Recycling, East Penn Manufacturing form partnership

KC Recycling, a lead battery recycler based in British Columbia, has partnered with East Penn Manufacturing in Pennsylvania to recycle and repurpose plastic from spent lead batteries into new batteries.

Earlier this year, KC Recycling commissioned a polypropylene (PP) extrusion line, which can produce 10,000 metric tons of high-quality plastic resin per year. Through the partnership, East Penn Manufacturing sends spent lead batteries to KC Recycling’s facility in British Columbia where the components are separated and recycled. The plastic is processed through KC Recycling’s extrusion line, where 100 percent of the content is recycled into PP resin that meets East Penn Manufacturing’s exacting specifications.

“The 75-person-strong team at KC Recycling is extremely proud of our new plastic plant,” says KC Recycling CEO Pete Stamper. “This project caught the attention of the public and policymakers as a benchmark for solving the challenges of plastic recycling. In the coming years we expect to double or triple our production by incorporating new postconsumer plastic products such as car seats, paint buckets and more lead batteries.”

According to KC Recycling, its plastic recycling plant supplies reprocessed PP resin to manufacturers across North America to produce battery cases, paint buckets and plastic liners.