Lithium Australia NL’s (ASX: LIT) recycling division Envirostream Australia Pty Ltd is preparing to field trial a daring plan to utilise recycled battery material as fertiliser.
Envirostream has been given the mission by its parent company to assess the use of zinc and manganese derived from recycled alkaline batteries as micro-nutrient supplements in fertilisers.
Initial pot trials undertaken in controlled greenhouse conditions indicated that the Envirostream product did have potential as a source of micronutrients in fertilisers.
It also provides an opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint of the battery industry, as well as landfill contamination, while improving global food production.
The tests are now moving out of the lab and into the field, with a trial site chosen near Kojonum in Western Australia’s wheatbelt area, a region that produces about 14 million tonnes of grain annually and is thus a major contributor to Australia’s export economy.
Lithium Australia’s Managing Director, Adrian Griffin, says soils in the area selected have a low pH and are deficient in zinc, manganese and phosphate; therefore, they are considered ideal for the application of fertilisers containing the manganese and zinc compounds recovered by Envirostream from spent alkaline batteries.
Blending of the manganese/zinc supplement with major-element fertilisers has begun, in preparation for wheat seeding, which is anticipated within the next two weeks.
Mr Griffin says Australia sells around 6,000 tonnes of alkaline batteries a year. In 2019, the nation’s Battery Stewardship Council (BSC) estimated that, at the end of their useful life, 97% of those batteries were disposed of in municipal waste streams and reported to landfill, a sad indictment of our society’s environmental management practices.
Hopefully, though, those practices will improve with the introduction of a voluntary battery stewardship programme currently being developed by the BSC. Similar initiatives implemented in other countries have been instrumental in improving the proportion of spent batteries recovered for recycling.
Globally, the disposal of alkaline batteries has become a major problem,” Mr Griffin said.
“Our plan for repurposing the active components of the spent cells is not only a significant step towards worldwide environmental management of the issue but could also have a powerful influence on the sustainability of disposable batteries.
“As such, it is an integral part of Lithium Australia’s quest to develop a circular economy for all battery types – which is certainly something society requires.”
