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With drivers’ increasing interest in hybrid and electric vehicles, you might think standard lead batteries are yesterday’s technology. You couldn’t be further from the truth.
There are many components that can be recycled, reducing the environmental impact of today’s cars and trucks. Tires can be retreaded; oil can be reformulated; small parts and engines can be remanufactured.
But of all the products you come across in your daily shop operations the most environmentally friendly is the lead battery. Are you surprised by that? Your customers probably are.
The fact is, that when done properly in the right facilities, lead batteries are virtually 100 percent recyclable. East Penn has led innovations in lead recycling that have become a model for the lead recycling industry – every day, more than 20 truckloads of used lead batteries are dismantled, separated and recycled.
The lead is smelted and then refined for use in new batteries and lead parts. The plastic cases and covers are cleaned, ground, extruded, and molded into new plastic parts in our onsite injection molding division.
Using a highly exclusive acid reclamation process, the battery acid is reclaimed in the company’s acid reclamation plant, the first in the industry.
East Penn uses millions of gallons of reclaimed acid in new batteries, avoiding acid disposal and conserving groundwater use.
Even the residual sulfur that results from the lead recycling process is trapped and processed into liquid fertilizer solution. As part of its 100% recycling goal, East Penn collects the heat from its furnaces to warm its buildings in cold weather.
As your customers fall in love with technology and new hybrid and electric vehicles become more and more common, remember this: electric vehicles also need to have a low-voltage system to power items like computers, electronics, safety systems and entertainment systems in the vehicle. A 12-volt AGM lead battery will be the reliable, sustainable and safe power source for those uses as the shift toward electrified and autonomous vehicles intensifies.
Help do your part by properly recycling every battery that comes into your shop.
For more information visit EastPennManufacturing.com.
This video is sponsored by The Group Training Academy.
