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Most place accepting lead car batteries will pay you for them. They are thus highly recycled for the same reason that copper is; there is a lot of incentive for

Most place accepting lead car batteries will pay you for them. They are thus highly recycled for the same reason that copper is; there is a lot of incentive for random folks to seek out unrecycled batteries and recycle them. I bet the precious metals in catalytic converters are also >99% recycled. The core charge when you buy a new battery is a deposit returned to whomever returns the battery. Putting a $20 bounty on an item is a great incentive to have someone recycle them.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago
Counterpoint: they put a deposit/return on smaller plastic bottles and cans over here, but last year only 65% of cans were returned instead of just binned. (as an aside I don't really understand that as cans and plastic bottles are easily separated from regular waste, but it's probably also down to reducing street waste, increasing consumer awareness, raising prices to consumers so they consume less disposable packaging, aaand get more money.)
- nebula8804 3y ago
  The deposit is like 5-10 cents right? Might be too small for most people to notice. The car battery fee is like 15-30$ and is charged as a separate line item at the point of sale. Also the batteries are large and contain acid and are only taken out of the car once its time to buy a new battery and given straight to the shop that sells the new battery, all these incentives line up to make recycling essentially zero friction.
- Symbiote 3y ago
  In Denmark the bottle return rate is 92%. Collecting bottles like this allowed the plastic to be used for food-grade recycled plastic, which is not the case for general household waste. Glas beer and soda bottles are washed and refused. https://danskretursystem.dk/en/about-us/ https://danskretursystem.dk/en/about-us/
- margalabargala 3y ago
  I live in Oregon where the deposit is $0.10, and while plenty of citizens will toss cans, there are also plenty of people who will go through trash looking for them to return. It's not difficult to believe that increasing the deposit 150x would correspondingly increase return rates.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago

Counterpoint: they put a deposit/return on smaller plastic bottles and cans over here, but last year only 65% of cans were returned instead of just binned. (as an aside I don't really understand that as cans and plastic bottles are easily separated from regular waste, but it's probably also down to reducing street waste, increasing consumer awareness, raising prices to consumers so they consume less disposable packaging, aaand get more money.)

nebula8804 3y ago
The deposit is like 5-10 cents right? Might be too small for most people to notice. The car battery fee is like 15-30$ and is charged as a separate line item at the point of sale. Also the batteries are large and contain acid and are only taken out of the car once its time to buy a new battery and given straight to the shop that sells the new battery, all these incentives line up to make recycling essentially zero friction.
Symbiote 3y ago
In Denmark the bottle return rate is 92%. Collecting bottles like this allowed the plastic to be used for food-grade recycled plastic, which is not the case for general household waste. Glas beer and soda bottles are washed and refused. https://danskretursystem.dk/en/about-us/ https://danskretursystem.dk/en/about-us/
margalabargala 3y ago
I live in Oregon where the deposit is $0.10, and while plenty of citizens will toss cans, there are also plenty of people who will go through trash looking for them to return. It's not difficult to believe that increasing the deposit 150x would correspondingly increase return rates.