Reason of treating and recycling waste batteries

Waste battery has been one of the major waste problems encountered by many cities around the world; Hong Kong is of no exception. The chemicals found within the battery will not only harm the environment but is also affecting our health. With our increasing materialized desires and the increasing usage and demand of electronic appliances, more waste batteries have been generated. Improper and irresponsible discarding of waste battery together with household waste will cause adverse impacts to the ecosystem since batteries contain hazardous chemical substances such as cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, which are all heavy metals.

In the case of Hong Kong, if these waste batteries are disposed along with our municipal waste, these wastes will be disposed in the three strategic landfills, and increasing the toxicity levels of the landfills due to the release of heavy metals. These heavy metals will pollute the underground soil and water table and once entered the food chain, bioaccumulation and biomagnifications will occur, which will directly affect out health.

Providing treatment to used batteries can minimize and eliminate the pollution generated by the leakage of heavy metals. In addition, metals contained in the waste batteries are recyclable resources that can be extracted again and reuse in other areas. Recycling the usable materials to the best possible extent can also reduce the burden to the landfill. Any electrolyte generated from the process should be treated as chemical wastes and proper neutralization, treatment before further discharge according to Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department’s requirement should be ensured.

Normal waste battery treatment in Dunwell includes steps of prescreening, refurbishment, dismantling, recycling and disposal. Handling these waste batteries requires special attention to prevent these hazardous chemicals from both leakages to the environment and health risk to our staffs. Such procedures include inspection of residual charges to prevent electric shocks, spill control of electrolytes and electrodes during transportation and dismantling.

The used batteries will be dissembled and separated into metal, plastic, and electrolyte and then sent to recycling points respectively. All handling processes are conducted in an environmental sound and safe manner, in lines with the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department’s Waste Disposal Ordinance and the requirements under the international Basel Convention.   

為何要回收廢棄電池

跟世界各地許多城市一樣，香港也正面對如何妥善地處理廢棄電池這個問題。電池內的化學物質不僅會危害環境，也會影響我們的健康。然而，隨著我們對物質慾望的增加，電子儀器的需求在不斷上升，越來越多的廢電池因而產生。不正確和不負責任地丟棄廢電池及將它們與生活垃圾一起處理都會對生態系統造成惡性影響，因為電池中含有大量有害化學物質，如鎘、鉛、汞和鎳等重金屬。

以香港的情況為例，如果我們將廢電池與都市固體廢物一同棄置，這些廢物將被放置在三個策略性堆填區，若電池內的重金屬流出，便會釋放有毒化學物，增加堆填區的毒性水平。這些重金屬會污染地下土壤和水層，進入生態食物鏈後，更會產生生物蓄積性和生物放大作用等影響，即有毒化學物質在生物體內累積並產生越來越高的濃度，直接影響人體健康。

妥善地處理廢舊電池可以有效地減少電池內重金屬洩漏對環境產生的污染及影響。此外，廢電池內含的金屬屬可再生資源，經提取後更可重用。一般的廢電池處理程序包括預審、翻新、拆解、回收和處置等步驟。

為確保處理過程中化學品不會洩漏對環境及工作人員的安全做成影響，過程中需特別注意防漏程序的監控，包括檢查殘餘電荷以防止觸電、防止電解質和電極的洩漏控制等，以免在運輸和拆除過程中漏出有害物質，影響環境及危害工作人員的健康。

在處理過程中，用過的廢棄電池將會被拆開，並依據其內裡的物質如金屬，塑料和電解質分拆開，並分別運送至各種物料的回收商。每個處理程序及步驟都以環境和安全為首要考慮點而進行，亦附合香港環境保護署廢物處置條例和國際巴塞爾公約的規定。