The lead-acid battery industry is counting on the fact that most folks
can't follow the math either.
You have to understand that the lead that goes into producing batteries
must come back out, and it isn't. It is going into the environment.
Let's put it another way:
100 lbs of lead produced. 50 lbs from a mine. 50 lbs from recycled
sources. (Where is half of the lead going? Why must we mine so much?)
80 pounds goes into lead-acid battery production. 20 lbs goes into other
products (lead pipes, for example.)
Of that 80 lbs of lead-acid battery production, supposedly only 4 lbs is
lost to the environment, and 76 pounds is recycled back into production.
Lets say that 0 lbs, of the 20 lbs, is recycled from other products (0%
recycle rate.)
This, (according to the battery industry,) gives at least 76 pounds of
lead coming from the recycle plant for the next production run, but
there is only 50 pounds coming from the recycle plant. What happened to
the 26 (at least) pounds of lead? The answer is that it is lost to the
environment.
This is the best case. Since we know they recycle at least _some_ of the
other products.
These have been the use and recycling numbers for years and years. Total
lead production, recycle percentage, and total battery production has
been pretty steady for a long time. For the present mass balance, you
basically only recycle about half of everything. Even if you attempt
blame all the dismal recycling numbers on the "other products" you still
are only recycling 63% of the lead in batteries.
63% is a lot less than the 95% the battery industry claims. The 95% is
BS. Plain and simple.
Bill D
On 12/26/2013 10:58 AM, EVDL Administrator wrote:
On 26 Dec 2013 at 8:48, Bill Dube wrote:
50% of lead production comes from recycled sources, the rest is mined.
Lead-acid batteries use 80% of that total lead production. The
difference, 30%, ends up in the environment. Simple math. You just look
at the lead association's own figures.
I don't follow your math here, but I do realize that lead's toxicity is a
problem. One issue that's not often on our radar is that some lead
recycling is carried out overseas in nations with little environmental
regulation and/or enforcement. I've read descriptions of old batteries
being knocked apart by workers using little or no personal protection,
unwanted materials literally thrown on the ground, waste water and
electrolyte going right into rivers. Some of this is done out of ignorance,
some out of outright carelessness. It's a significant problem, but few here
know about it.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/old-batteries-crossing-borders-
leave-a-toxic-lead-trail
http://tinyurl.com/p67wfo7
David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
EVDL Administrator
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