Easy Ways to Sell or Buy Scrap Lithium-Ion Batteries

Each year, more and more companies enjoy the convenience of rechargeable batteries. Interco performs responsible recycling of the batteries that power these products. The process can divert millions of pounds of potentially harmful metals from landfills and help preserve valuable natural resources.

Recyclers sell or buy scrap lithium-ion batteries after aging, overuse, or overcharging occurs in batteries.

Scrap lithium-ion batteries have a potential recycling value that can turn waste into profit. The market for recycling lithium-ion batteries alone could be worth $18 billion annually by 2030, Statista estimates, up from $1.5 billion in 2019.

As more batteries are manufactured to keep up with the increasing demand, the recovery of the critical materials in these batteries will be vital to create a circular, sustainable industry and to manage waste.

Lithium-ion batteries contain these rich minerals and valuable metals that allow for extended manufacturing of batteries if recycled. These valuable metals and other materials can be recovered, processed, and reused. Furthermore, companies with a pile of scrap can turn their waste to profit.

With the average battery only set to last eight years, some of those 2017 batteries could need to be replaced and disposed of by 2025.

Buy Scrap Lithium-Ion Batteries

Battery users tend to substitute their expired batteries after aging, overuse, or overcharging occurs. Once this happens, the process to sell or buy scrap lithium-ion batteries becomes significant.

The performance characteristics of lithium-ion batteries enhance the performance of our electronic devices. Numerous valuable metals and minerals create a lithium-ion battery. These metals, like other batteries, include:

• Nickel
• Cobalt
• Copper

Lithium-ion batteries have become more common due to how their chemistries allow products to be lightweight while also holding higher charges for longer periods of time. Furthermore, these same factors play into some of the hazards associated with them.

As a result, collectors, shippers, and recyclers must take precautionary steps when transporting and processing lithium-ion batteries. Before your company considers where to sell or buy scrap lithium-ion batteries, consider the following tips for recycling scrap lithium-ion batteries.

Dos

• Remove the battery from the device whenever possible
• Keep them in a cool and dry place to avoid combustion
• Bring them to a certified recycling provider who can safely deal with the hazardous materials they may potentially contain.

Don’ts

• Do not dump used batteries into your household waste
• Do not keep old batteries close to flammable materials

Recycling techniques recover 95% to 98% of a battery’s nickel, cobalt, aluminum, graphite, and more than 80% of its lithium. Much of those materials are sold back to companies to make new Tesla batteries and other materials.

Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

Recycling centers sell or buy scrap lithium-ion batteries with the goal of extracting the valuable metals from the battery. Before retrieving the metals, recyclers follow a recycling process.

1. Prior to the recycling process, companies need to deactivate the batteries.
2. Lithium-ion batteries are put in a specialized room that is oxygen-free.
3. Hydrometallurgy is the process of extracting metals from ores.
4. Next, the leaching process refers to the process of using aqueous solutions to extract metal from other metal-bearing materials.
5. The battery components are separated into three different items. These items may include cobalt, steel, aluminum, copper, plastic.
6. As a result, these valuable metals are retrieved, and companies sell them.

Lithium-ion batteries are costly to produce and this is because of the high material cost and complex preparation processes. Therefore, obsolete, or spent lithium-ion batteries can have a positive impact on the economy and environment when transported to a recycling center.

Consequently, batteries that are not transported to a recycling center end up in a landfill. As a result, Interco performs the recycling process for lithium-ion batteries carefully on a facility comprised of five buildings — approximately 400,000 square feet total — on more than 35 acres.

Interco Provides Easy Ways to Sell or Buy Scrap Lithium-Ion Batteries

Interco has the capability to sell and buy scrap lithium-ion batteries for recycling purposes. Therefore, recycling allows for the recovery of rich metals and reduces the harmful effects on the environment that improper disposal causes. Furthermore, the team at Interco accepts, processes, trades, and recycles an array of nonferrous metals. Interco recycles batteries of all shapes, sizes, and chemistry. Thus, the team at Interco continues to lead the way in terms of innovative industrial recycling solutions. Consequently, to discover more about how to recycle lithium-ion batteries, click here.