The Corporation for Battery Recycling (CBR) has released a request for proposal (RFP) for a stewardship organization (SO) to manage a national recycling program for household batteries.
CBR was founded by Energizer, Gillette, Panasonic and Spectrum Brands, who are major providers of batteries in the USA. CBR is a non-profit corporation that aims to lead a voluntary national program for maximizing the recycling of spent battery materials. MIT had performed a full life cycle analysis of consumer batteries and found that the collection and recycling of the batteries may be net positive from the environmental point of view. This finding was the backbone towards the formation of CBR.
The President of CBR, Marc K. Boolish stated that CBR was looking out for a stewardship organization that has the capacity to commence a country-wide program that will inspire battery consumers to take part in the recycling program.
CBR has built a framework for recycling voluntarily, which states that the usage of manganese, steel, zinc and other materials will offset the impact of extraction of virgin materials.
The stewardship organization will have to comply with any technical challenges, laws and regulations that are associated with the battery recycling process. The national program will aim to collect and recycle prismatic alkaline and primary cylindrical batteries and lithium button cells. The stewardship organization must initiate a communication and education program to increase awareness. Effective systems for tracking and reporting the recycling of the batteries must be undertaken. The SO must also provide ways to reduce the environmental impact of batteries with regard to their global warming potential, ecosystem quality, depletion of resources and reduction in impact on human health.
Source: http://recyclebattery.org/