Where & How to Dispose of Your Old Car Battery
Correct Car Battery Disposal is important for our environment. Battery Rescue provides a convenient Car Battery Disposal service through its many customer sites that can be found through out metropolitan Perth.
Called our Drop’N’Go battery recycling initiative, used lead acid batteries dropped at one of our sites are stored, transported and recycled using the best environmental practices. Our battery containers, pictured here, prevent any acid leaks into the environment and ensure the safe transport of your batteries to the Australian recycling facilities.
Lead is one of the most toxic substances to the human body and the environment and yet every year hundreds of thousands of used lead acid batteries wind up in landfill or rotting in backyards.
Used car batteries are often incorrectly disposed of through Council supplied household rubbish bins. From there they can cause considerable damage to Rubbish Collection Vehicles, even resulting in fires and ultimately winding up in landfill where they slowly breakdown leaching acid and toxic lead into the soil and water table.
So don’t leave your old car battery around the house or dispose of it in your household rubbish to pollute our environment…
Dispose of your car battery (or any lead acid battery) at one of Battery Rescue’s many, conveniently located Drop’N’Go Stations, located through out Metropolitan Perth.
It doesn’t take much effort to help… Just slip the battery into the boot of your car when you go shopping or to get your car serviced and drop it off to any one of the following participating companies. It’s that easy!
Drop’N’Go Perth Locations for Car Battery Disposal
Below is a list of Perth businesses who are participating in our battery Drop’N’Go recycling initiative. Simply find a business conveniently located near you and drop off your used lead acid batteries. The map will automatically display the Battery Recycling Locations that are within 10km of your current location. You can enter an alternative location if required or increase the radius of your search.
Car Battery Recycling – What Happens to Your Car Battery
The car batteries and other lead acid batteries collected by Battery Rescue are transported to an environmentally approved Battery Recycling facility in NSW. More than 97% of the original battery is recycled with only a small amount disposed of as slag. The lead acid battery recycling process involves breaking the batteries to recover the lead, plastic as polypropylene chips and sulphuric acid as sodium sulphate. The recovered materials and their uses include;
- lead, recovered as chips and a paste which requires a high temperature smelting process to recover the lead. Lead represents approximately 55% of the recycled car battery with the recovered lead predominantly used in the production of new lead acid batteries.
- Polypropylene, recovered as chips that are used in the manufacture of a wide range of plastic products
- Sodium sulphate which is used in a wide range of products including detergents and fertilisers.
In Australia we currently recycle approximately 85 – 90% of used lead acid batteries every year. This compares poorly with the US where recycling rates are close to 100% and the world average of 95%. The remaining 14% are lost to illegal landfill, export or are just left in residential homes, farms, mine sites to rot. We should and must do better…
Battery Collection Service For Businesses
If you are a business that accumulates used lead acid batteries, such as car batteries and other lead acid batteries, and want to ensure that you meet the regulatory requirements for the recycling of your batteries, please see our battery collection service for further details. We also recycle UPS batteries.
FAQs
Generally Yes. The exception is if your car battery has a leak. The sulfuric acid is highly corrosive and will damage property and can cause serious burns. Also the acid has relatively high levels of entrained lead and other toxic heavy metals, so if your skin does come in contact with the acid, we would recommend thoroughly washing the affected area.
In the event that you battery has developed a leak we would recommend using rubber gloves when handling the battery and to transport it in a plastic tub, to a recycling location.
It most instances you can dispose of your car battery for free.
Yes. Lead acid batteries come in many different shapes and sizes and are used for a wide range of applications. As well as for motor vehicles, they are also used in Gold Buggies, UPS & computer backup systems, Solar backup systems, medical and technical equipment and many other industrial applications. Provided they are a lead acid battery, which you will find printed somewhere on the battery, they can be readily recycled.
Yes you can, however we would discourage you from doing so. The scrap metal industry has a poor track record with regards to the regulation compliant storage and transport of used lead acid batteries. They predominantly will use wood pallets for this purpose, which will not capture any acid leaks and are frequently unsafe for transport.
