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Environmentally Sound Management of Used Lead Acid Batteries in Central America and the Caribbean
Basel Convention Regional Project
Secretariat of the Basel Convention
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI), Trinidad
Ministeriode Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (MARN), El Salvador
International Lead Management Center
Brian Wilson
May 2003
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Project Objectives
A comprehensive review of the existing national and regional systems for the management of ULAB in the 9 target countries, including the applied regulatory and economic instruments for collection and recycling, technical requirements, environmental and occupational practices, existing public-private partnerships and autonomous private sector campaigns, and the transboundary movements of battery scrap.
A preliminary assessment of the requirements for implementing ESM of used lead-acid batteries, including recommendations for waste prevention, at national and sub-regional levels.
Discussion with policy makers and private sector representatives regarding elements of practicable national and sub-regional strategies for ESM of used lead-acid batteries, including appropriate forms of public-private partnerships for assuring environmentally sound and economically viable battery scrap collection and lead recovery. Key outcomes would be:
1. Improved ULAB recovery rates
2. Reduced occupational and population lead exposure
3. The minimization of any environmental impact of ULAB recovery
The opportunity would also be taken to explore options to resolve any lead exposure issues and contamination problems on a regional basis.
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Participating Countries
The Countries participating in the study were:
Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia and the Dominican Republic.
Project activities were coordinated by the Sub-regional Centres of the Basel Convention for Training and Technology Transfer (RBTC) in San Salvador (MARN)(for Central America) and in Trinidad (CARIRI) (for the Caribbean). The RBTC in San Salvador was assisted by the National Cleaner Production Centres in San Salvador and in Mexico City, as they have expertise in the field of lead-acid battery recycling. CARIRI worked with the University of West Indies (UWI) through its Department of Chemistry in Trinidad, which has been conducting related lead exposure studies for several years.
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Trinidad Workshop
Prior to the start of the study a project launching two-day workshop was held in Trinidad. Attendance was limited to the national coordinators of the project in each target country and representatives of the RBTC in San Salvador and Trinidad, NCPCs in the participating countries, the SBC, UNCTAD, the ILMC and the Brazilian author of the Guidelines for the ESM of ULAB.
The Workshop provided an ideal forum to:
· Confirm and explain the terms of reference for the project.
· Determine and agree the relevant information that would need to be collected in the country assessment phase.
· Decide where and how to find the best information sources.
· Establish the extent and scope of the field survey.
· Set out an agreed timetable for data collection and assimilation.
· Facilitate the planning of the second phase of the project involving the collation and interpretation of the information collected in the first phase and a second workshop to consider and discuss the results of the study to decide on the most appropriate national and regional strategies for the establishment of the ESM for ULAB.
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Action Plan
After discussion of the many exposure issues facing the participating countries, all delegates agreed that the study should proceed on the following basis:
The assessment phase would aim to tabulate relevant legal requirements, automotive battery consumption statistics, estimate annual leaded scrap generation, determine the export and import of lead containing scrap, ULAB collection schemes and develop a list of the recycling facilities.
The field surveys, including those undertaken by the ILMC, would assess environmental and occupational performance levels at recyclers identified in the first part of the study.
At the end of the assessment phase the information collected and the data tabulated would be sent to the Regional Centers to be collated, interpreted and distributed to all participating countries and organizations for consideration.
At this stage, CARIRI would conduct a legislative survey of the participating countries.
ILMC would complete a technical survey of the process found in use in the region and assess the potential for improved environmental performance.
A second regional battery recycling workshop targeting the countries in Central America and the Caribbean would then be convened to discuss the findings of the assessment phase; examine the various lead exposure issues; review options for the design and implementation of appropriate national ESM's for battery collection and recycling; and consider possibilities for regional cooperation.
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Information Sources
The number of automotive batteries in any country could be determined from the import and export records for cars and new batteries.
ILMC prepared a series of questionnaires in English and Spanish covering the following key issues:
· Industrial Processes
· Environmental impact
· Occupational Exposure pathways
· Retail of new batteries and Collection of ULAB
· Attitudes and Awareness towards lead exposure issues
The Questionnaires were distributed to Government Agencies, battery retailers and ULAB recyclers.
During this phase of the project, ILMC visited El Salvador, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Trinidad to:
· Review the data collection and the draft country project reports
And to visit:
· Some of the battery retailers
· ULAB collection centers
· Regulated secondary smelters
· ULAB reconditioning and repair shops
Regrettably, due to either civil war or political unrest visits to Panama, Columbia and Venezuela were not possible to arrange.
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San Salvador Workshop
At the completion of the data gathering phase and following the publication of the 9 country reports a Workshop was convened in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador.
In addition to the countries participating in the study, the following countries also attended the workshop:
Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Brazil, Dominica and Bermuda.
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Uses of Lead Acid Batteries
Whilst the major uses for lead acid batteries in the Caribbean and Central America are to either start or power cars, trucks, buses, boats, trains, rapid mass-transit systems and recreational vehicles there are many other essential uses that are typical of such regions in the world.
In many developing countries, and even those in transition, power supplies are often intermittent or unreliable. During power outages, lead-acid batteries provide quiet, pollution-free emergency power for critical operations for short periods of time until electrical supplies are restored.
In these situations, the telephones stay on and this is because every major telephone company in the region, including mobile telephone service providers, uses lead-acid batteries as backup power to the telecommunications systems.
In the office and at home many people in the region have units to provide an “uninterrupted power supply” (UPS) for computer systems.
Increasingly in remote areas of the region, lead acid batteries are being coupled with solar panels to store energy generated by the sun during the day to provide electrical power at night to the local communities.
Furthermore, in many parts of the region where electrical power supplies are also unreliable many households keep a 12 volt lead acid battery as a domestic standby power supply for lighting and the television and radio.
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Transboundary Movement of ULAB
The study clearly identified the transboundary movements of ULAB in the region.
ULAB are shipped or transported from:
· The USA to Mexico
· Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to El Salvador
· Costa Rica to Panama
· Panama to Colombia
· Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and the Dominican Republic to Venezuela
Unfortunately not all of the transboundary movements of ULAB were found to be legal and it was unclear, especially in Panama and Colombia whether the smelter receiving the ULAB was licensed and regulated.
Furthermore only two countries, namely Trinidad and Mexico demonstrated a compliance with the Basel Guidelines for the storage, packaging and transport of ULAB.
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Benefits of Environmentally Sound Management of Used Lead Acid Batteries
All of the reports documented recovery activities for ULAB ranging from collection right through to recycling. However, due to the adverse environmental and occupational health effects widely reported it is important to bear in mind why environmentally sound ULAB recycling should be encouraged.
First of al, if there is the necessary infrastructure, regulation and financial incentives to promote recycling, then ULAB would be stored under cover in safe and environmentally sound conditions.
Valuable resources such as lead and polypropylene and increasingly the battery acid would be recovered and reused. Such recycling operations represent good environmental practice, especially for non-ferrous metals, as recycled materials normally require four times less energy to produce than primary commodities and in the case of lead, it also reduces the environmental footprint of mining operations.
Well managed recovery operations for ULAB from collection to the production of refined lead ingots reduce the threat of population lead exposure from the illicit dumping of ULAB into municipal landfill sites or “backyard” recycling that blights many communities in the region. In this small way, a contribution can be made to protect the environment for future generations.
In addition, there is a social dimension because recycling of ULAB creates jobs and provides an invaluable income for many small businesses and families.
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Methods of Recycling
The studies readily identify two distinct industrial sectors, that is, the “formal” and “informal” sectors. Examination of these two sectors shows that the “formal” sector comprises licensed and regulated businesses, and the “informal” sector is made up from a multitude of shops and garages, some registered, some not, but all earning a living by whatever means including legitimate as well as environmentally unfriendly activities.
Those companies in the formal sector are structured with a developed customer and resource base while those in the informal sector rely on opportunities and good fortune. This means that the formal sector collect ULAB through an established network of retailers and suppliers, whereas the informal sector tend to be “scavengers” relying on whatever can be found wherever that might be.
Two of the main secondary lead smelters in the region are fully integrated companies, in that, other divisions in the group are battery manufactures and rely on the smelting division to provide the refined lead. The informal sector do not have a main customer base, but are somewhat fragmented in their activities, sometimes making fishing weights from lead recovered from ULAB and on other occasions selling the lead bullion to the battery manufactures.
In essence the formal sector comprises of organizations that are focused on recycling ULAB and are almost exclusively part of large corporations or dealerships with international partners or trading links that require environmentally sound management as a key business principle. The informal sector, however, is a mixture of some battery retailers that send the majority of ULAB collected to a licensed recycler while also engaging in battery reconditioning in small backroom workshops causing acid and lead contamination of the sanitation system; and others who produce lead bullion by melting and smelting ULAB without any control mechanisms in the most environmentally unacceptable way.
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Life Cycle Scenarios of the Lead Acid Battery
It is helpful when considering battery recycling to examine possible life cycle scenarios in order to determine likely sources of information.
For example:
· A battery manufacturer will sell a battery to a retailer
· The retailer will sell the battery to the owner of a vehicle
· When the battery is “spent” the vehicle owner will need a replacement and he could return the used battery to the retailer for recycling and a possible discount on the new battery.
· In which case the retailer will send the battery to a licensed recycler and the recovered lead will be sold to the manufacturer. The non metal components will also be treated in a environmentally sound manner, some recycled, others neutralized prior to disposal.
· However, the retailer might not take back used batteries and the vehicle owner may have to take the used battery to suitable used battery collection point.
· The battery scrap collector will then send the used batteries to the licensed recycler for recovery of the recyclable materials.
· However, depending on the prevailing market conditions there might be a better financial reward for the vehicle owner if the used battery was sold to a battery reconditioner. Sometimes a reconditioner can reclaim a used battery by cannibalizing another and using those components with some “life” left in them. These reconditioned batteries will not have a long life, but often find a ready market amongst the poorest in society.
· Those “spent” components that the reconditioner cannot reuse are usually sold to an unlicensed recycler, often referred to as a “backyard” recycler. This secondary lead sector of the industry is called the “informal” sector, although a more appropriate term would be “unregulated” as operating practices will rarely conform to sound environmental and occupational performance standards.
· In order to establish an accurate picture of the life of a battery in Central America account must be taken of all of the possible scenarios outlined above.
· Nevertheless, the informal secondary lead sector will often supply the battery manufacturers and the licensed recyclers with unrefined lead bullion. Anther outlet for the lead bullion produced by the informal sector is fishing sinkers.
· Sometimes the vehicle owner is unable to take a used battery to any recycling collection point and the battery is disposed of in the nearest municipal “dump”. This scenario not only poses serious long term problems for the environment, but is a loss of a valuable resource.
· Where municipal authorities have sorting facilities, any used batteries are segregated and either sent to the nearest used battery collection point for shipment to a licensed recycler or directly to the licensed recycler.
· In many cases, particularly in the developing world, scavengers scouring rubbish dumps for anything of value will recover the used battery as a saleable recyclable commodity and sell it to a secondary lead plant, usually an unlicensed recycler.
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