UK Company Building Battery Recycling Plant

G&P Batteries has signed an exclusive license to build a specialist non-lead acid battery reprocessing plant in the UK.

The plant, to be based in the West Midlands, will be capable of recycling up to 1,500 metric tons a year of Alkaline and zinc carbon batteries and should be operational by early next year.

Michael Green, managing director of G&P Batteries, explained why the company had decided to move into reprocessing: "For some time G&P has been responsible for collecting around 800 metric tons per year of non-lead acid batteries in the UK which are sent for reprocessing. Around 25 percent of these are alkaline and zinc carbon, which currently are shipped to Europe.

"We firmly believe that the UK needs its own recycling facilities and have decided to take the lead and extend our own operation to include reprocessing, although battery collection will remain our mainstream business."

The UK license agreement is between G & P Batteries and Recupyll SA, a French company which specializes in the development of processes for a number of recycling operations.

The plant will be able to recycle in excess of 55 percent of the materials in alkaline and zinc carbon batteries. It will separate the batteries into their constituent parts so that the various materials, including steel, zinc and manganese, can be recovered.

The UK plant will have a capacity of 1,500 metric tons per year.