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Sorting
Used batteries contain many scarce, reusable raw materials. To recover these, the batteries must first be sorted before they can be correctly recycled. The sorting of the empty batteries takes place in Tienen at our sorting center: Sortbat.
Why is it important to sort batteries?
Sorting empty batteries is very important and should always be done in the best and safest way possible. The purer they are sorted, the purer the recycling process can happen, and the purer the raw materials that can be recovered. Therefore, after collection, the batteries undergo a sorting process where they are classified into 7 main categories:
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Lithium primary (non-rechargeable)
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Lithium-ion (rechargeable)
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Nickel-cadmium
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Nickel-metal hydride
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Lead-acid batteries
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Button cells
The sorting process
Recycling centre
In a recycling centre, all different kinds of batteries come together. From small button cells to large bike batteries, damaged or not: all these batteries are welcome here.
Store
Everywhere you can buy (devices with) batteries, you can also return used batteries. You don't need to have bought the batteries in the same store.
Company
Companies can also collect batteries, for instance as an additional service for their employees or if they themselves use a lot of batteries
Schools
Schools that want to contribute can also collect batteries. This way, they earn points that they can exchange for admission tickets and coupons.
The sorting steps
1. Pre-sorting
To begin with, the drums filled with batteries are dumped onto a wide conveyor belt that transitions into a sorting belt for pre-sorting. Along this belt, workers remove the large batteries and accumulators, such as those from drills and electric bicycles. Based on their composition, these are immediately sorted into different groups: electrical devices with built-in batteries, and rechargeable lithium, alkaline, lead, NiMH, and NiCd packs. Any bags are cut open and the large pieces of waste are removed, just like other waste streams such as lamps and electronics.
The rest of the stream continues through a sieving installation, where AA and AAA batteries and vermiculite are sorted.
2. Manual sorting
After pre-sorting, the batteries move on to the manual sorting. Everything that was not removed during the pre-sorting is further sorted out: bits of waste such as plastic, ink cartridges, medicines, etc., are removed. After the manual sorting, mainly cylindrical batteries remain (from AAA to D batteries), along with zinc batteries and button cells with an iron casing.
3. Magnetic sorting
All batteries that are still on the conveyor belt end up at the magnetic sorting next. Here, a magnetically charged conveyor belt runs above the batteries. It attracts all the batteries, except for those with a non-magnetic zinc casing. These non-magnetic batteries immediately end up in a separate box and are ready for recycling. The rest of the batteries continue on the conveyor belt to the next sorting phase.
4. Mechanical sorting
During the mechanical sorting, the batteries are poured through a vibrating sieve and sorted by shape and size. Here, we separate button cell batteries, 9V batteries, 4.5V batteries, AA and AAA batteries, C and D batteries.
5. Sorting with AI
The last step in the sorting process is sorting with artificial intelligence (AI) and x-ray. After all, some batteries can have exactly the same dimensions, but a different chemical composition. With the help of laser and x-ray scans, the batteries are identified based on their composition at this stage. Then, the individual batteries automatically end up in specific collection drums per chemical family, after which they are ready for recycling.
The great advantage of this AI method is that deformed, corroded, and other damaged batteries can still be correctly identified and sorted based on their contents, regardless of their appearance and weight.
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