Used car, truck, UPS and industrial batteries — the largest lead scrap stream in the world, recycled almost entirely into new batteries, and controlled under hazardous-waste rules wherever they move.
Used car, truck, UPS and industrial batteries — the largest lead scrap stream in the world, recycled almost entirely into new batteries, and controlled under hazardous-waste rules wherever they move.
A lead-acid battery is roughly 60 per cent lead by weight, with the rest polypropylene case, acid and separators. Used batteries from vehicles, telecom and UPS systems are collected by battery makers’ take-back schemes, scrap dealers and garages and sold whole to secondary lead smelters, who break them, neutralise the acid, recover the plastic and smelt the lead paste and grids into refined lead.
The Rains grade covers drained and undrained whole batteries; battery plates and lead paste are sold separately as refinery grades.
Battery recycling is a tightly regulated industry. Whole batteries are hazardous waste under the Basel Convention and under national rules, so cross-border movement needs licences and consent. India, South Korea, the United States, Europe and Mexico run large secondary lead industries; much of the world’s battery scrap is smelted within the country of collection. Our rules guides cover the Basel regime.
Code: ReMA Rains (scrap drained/undrained lead batteries)
The main importing countries for this grade — each links to the country page with its mills, smelters, price references and named firms.