What are the pollutants in the waste battery?
Professor Nie Yongfeng, doctoral supervisor of the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering of Tsinghua University, led the research team to do research on the harm and treatment of waste batteries. He said that in recent years, there have been many reports on the harm caused by waste batteries to the environment, but these reports did not explain to readers or viewers the scientific research content supporting their conclusions, did not introduce their analysis and reasoning process to readers, and did not list actual cases of pollution caused by dry batteries, only the conclusion of “serious pollution”.
What harmful substances are contained in waste batteries, through what mechanism are these substances released into the environment, how much damage will be caused to the environment, there are cases of serious pollution caused by non-dry waste batteries at home and abroad, how do developed countries solve this problem? With these questions in mind, the research team launched an in-depth and comprehensive investigation, and the conclusions reached are far from some news reports, which are unrealistic and extreme. The professor said that battery products can be divided into primary dry batteries (ordinary dry batteries), secondary dry batteries (rechargeable batteries, mainly used for mobile phones, computers), lead-acid batteries (mainly used in automobiles) three categories. The most concerned and reported by the masses is about ordinary dry batteries. The batteries mentioned below all refer to ordinary dry batteries. Batteries mainly contain iron, zinc, manganese, etc., in addition to containing trace amounts of mercury, mercury is toxic. Some reports generally say that the battery contains mercury, cadmium, arsenic and other substances, which is inaccurate. In fact, the ordinary dry batteries used by the masses do not need to add cadmium, lead, arsenic and other substances in the production process. However, the relevant person of the State Environmental Protection Administration believes that the waste battery does not need to be centrally recycled, and the previous reports on the harm to the environment of waste batteries lack scientific basis, which has caused misleading to the masses to some extent.
Why is the concept of waste batteries = harmful waste deeply rooted in people’s hearts?
Mercury-free production of alkaline batteries has been in place for many years, but the image of waste batteries as hazardous waste remains entrenched. In the early years, alkaline zinc-manganese batteries were used in large quantities, which brought convenience to life, but also buried various hidden dangers in environmental pollution. Mercury is a kind of heavy metal harmful to human body, after the old batteries containing mercury carelessly discarded, after long-term weathering corrosion, mercury will leak into the ground, pollute the groundwater, and through the biological chain to make animals chronic poisoning. The harm of mercury in early waste batteries to environmental pollution and human body has gradually been recognized by people, and the attention of all walks of life and the active recycling activities of all kinds of waste batteries have played a positive role in promoting the recycling and treatment of waste batteries, and have also left the inherent impression of “batteries are harmful waste to be centralized treatment” to contemporary people.