Within one month of landfill treatment, the metal shell of waste batteries will be corroded and perforated, and harmful substances in waste batteries will enter the soil and water, causing environmental pollution. According to environmental experts, if 6 tons of domestic waste is mixed with a mercury-containing battery, when the waste is buried, the mercury concentration in the soil will exceed the safety standard; If waste batteries are mixed with domestic garbage and enter the incineration plant, mercury, cadmium and other metals in them will be gasified and discharged into the atmosphere at high temperature, polluting the atmospheric environment and affecting human health.
Mercury and cadmium in the battery will not leak out and cause harm during normal use.
I battery types and main pollution factors
Generally speaking, batteries can be divided into primary batteries and secondary batteries. Primary batteries include zinc-manganese batteries and alkaline zinc-manganese batteries. Zinc-manganese batteries can be divided into paste batteries and cardboard batteries. Alkaline Zn-Mn batteries include alkaline Zn-Mn batteries, button alkaline Zn-Mn batteries and rechargeable alkaline Zn-Mn batteries. Secondary batteries include small secondary batteries and lead-acid batteries. Small secondary batteries mainly include Cd-Ni battery, Ni-MH battery and Li-ion battery, in addition to power battery, fuel battery, solar battery, Zn-Ni battery and metal-air battery.
The harmful substances in the battery mainly include a large number of heavy metals and electrolyte solutions such as acid and alkali. Heavy metals mainly include mercury, cadmium, lead, nickel and zinc. Mercury, cadmium and lead are harmful to the environment and human health. Although zinc and nickel are beneficial substances in a certain concentration range, exceeding a certain amount in the environment will also be harmful to human health. Electrolytes such as waste acid and waste alkali may pollute the soil and make it acidic or alkaline.
Waste batteries containing waste acid and waste alkali (such as waste lead-acid batteries and waste cadmium-nickel batteries) may cause environmental pollution, including heavy metal pollution and environmental pollution caused by waste electrolyte, which may be short-term or long-term.
Second, the waste battery pollution transfer method
In the process of collection, transportation, storage, recovery and disposal of used batteries, chemicals in batteries may enter the environment due to mechanical damage or chemical corrosion of battery casings. The release of chemicals in waste batteries is relatively stable before the cladding is damaged, which can be considered as a natural barrier for waste batteries to pollute the environment. The pollutants in ordinary household dry batteries are mostly solid, and it takes some time to migrate from the inside of the battery to the environment. With the upgrading of battery products, the shell becomes stronger and stronger, the storage period of the battery is prolonged, and the time required for its pollutants to be released into the environment will also be extended.
Waste batteries directly discarded into the environment will gradually leak back into the environment due to long-term corrosion, even if the battery casing is no matter how good. After the battery is corroded, the electrochemical corrosion of micro-battery will aggravate the corrosion of other waste batteries and the leakage of pollutants. Therefore, the pollutants released by centralized stacking are relatively large, which is harmful to the environment. Artificial dumping of waste electrolyte such as waste acid and waste alkali from waste lead-acid batteries and large-scale cadmium-nickel batteries directly into the environment will cause instant heavy metal and electrolyte pollution. For example, in the soil polluted by waste acid from waste lead-acid batteries, the average lead content is 1-50g/kg soil, which seriously exceeds the background value of soil lead content. The pollution of waste cadmium-nickel batteries is similar to that of lead-acid batteries.
Hazards of waste batteries: In the process of collection, transportation, storage, recovery and disposal, chemicals in waste batteries may enter the environment due to mechanical damage or chemical corrosion of battery casings. The release of chemicals in waste batteries is relatively stable before the cladding is damaged, which can be considered as a natural barrier for waste batteries to pollute the environment. The pollutants in ordinary household dry batteries are mostly solid, and it takes some time to migrate from the inside of the battery to the environment. With the upgrading of battery products, the shell becomes stronger and stronger, the storage period of the battery is prolonged, and the time required for its pollutants to be released into the environment will also be extended.
Waste batteries directly discarded into the environment will gradually leak back into the environment due to long-term corrosion, even if the battery casing is no matter how good. After the battery is corroded, the electrochemical corrosion of micro-battery will aggravate the corrosion of other waste batteries and the leakage of pollutants. Therefore, the pollutants released by centralized stacking are relatively large, which is harmful to the environment. Artificial dumping of waste electrolyte such as waste acid and waste alkali from waste lead-acid batteries and large-scale cadmium-nickel batteries directly into the environment will cause instant heavy metal and electrolyte pollution. For example, in the soil polluted by waste acid from waste lead-acid batteries, the average lead content is 1-50g/kg soil, which seriously exceeds the background value of soil lead content. The pollution of waste cadmium-nickel batteries is similar to that of lead-acid batteries.
A battery can make one square meter of soil lose its use value forever; A grain of button cell can pollute a person's lifetime water consumption. The battery contains heavy metals such as palace, lead and cadmium, which can lead to anemia, insanity and even life-threatening in human body.
Responder: abnormal me-magician level 5-23 17:37
In recent two years, the impact of waste batteries on the environment has become one of the hot topics in domestic media. It is reported that batteries pollute the environment seriously, and one battery can pollute hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of water. Some people even say that the disposal of waste batteries together with domestic garbage will cause harm such as Minamata disease in Japan. These reports have aroused great repercussions in the society, and many people and groups who love environmental protection have carried out or participated in the activities of recycling used batteries.
However, relevant persons of the State Environmental Protection Administration believe that waste batteries do not need to be recycled centrally. Previous reports on the harm of waste batteries to the environment lacked scientific basis and misled the masses to some extent. So, how to deal with waste batteries is scientific? This paper briefly introduces this problem to help you understand the disposal of waste batteries more scientifically and protect our environment better.
What pollutants are there in waste batteries?
Professor Nie Yongfeng, doctoral supervisor of Tsinghua University Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, led the research group to study the harm and treatment of waste batteries. He said that in recent years, there have been many reports about the harm of waste batteries to the environment, but unfortunately, these reports did not explain the scientific research content supporting their conclusions to readers or viewers, did not introduce their analysis and reasoning process to readers, and did not list the actual cases of pollution caused by dry batteries, only the conclusion of "serious pollution".
What harmful substances are contained in waste batteries, and through what mechanism are these substances released into the environment, and how much damage will they cause to the environment? Are there any cases of serious pollution caused by waste dry batteries at home and abroad, and how do developed countries solve this problem? With questions, the research group conducted a comprehensive and in-depth investigation, and the conclusions reached were far from some news reports, unrealistic and extreme.
Professor Nie said that battery products can be divided into three categories: primary dry batteries (ordinary dry batteries), secondary dry batteries (rechargeable batteries, mainly used in mobile phones and computers) and lead-acid batteries (mainly used in automobiles). Ordinary dry batteries are widely used, concerned by the masses and reported the most. The batteries mentioned below all refer to ordinary dry batteries.
The battery mainly contains iron, zinc, manganese and so on. In addition, it also contains a small amount of mercury, which is toxic. It is reported that the battery contains mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic and other substances, which is inaccurate. In fact, ordinary dry batteries used by ordinary people do not need to be added with substances such as cadmium, lead and arsenic in the production process.
Mercury in waste batteries does not pose a threat to the environment.
Mercury has a low volatilization temperature and is a very toxic heavy metal. Soil in many places also contains trace amounts of mercury. In the process of mining, refining and processing mercury-containing products, if the sealing measures are not perfect, the mercury (vapor) released into the air will have a great impact on the health of operators.
Although the battery contains mercury, it contains little because it is an additive. Even for high mercury batteries, the mercury content is generally less than one thousandth of the battery weight. The annual mercury consumption of the battery industry in China is roughly equivalent to the mercury content in the wastewater discharged by a mercury-based PVC, mercury-based alchemy or high-mercury lead-zinc mining enterprise every year. Due to the large consumption area of batteries, the impact of mercury-containing waste batteries on the environment after entering the domestic waste treatment system is far less than the discharge of mercury-containing wastewater from a chemical enterprise mentioned above. In addition, the battery is covered by stainless steel or carbon steel, effectively preventing mercury leakage. Therefore, the waste batteries are scattered and discarded in domestic garbage, which is not harmful and objectively will not cause harm such as Minamata disease. The Minamata disease in Japan is caused by chemical enterprises discharging a large amount of mercury-containing wastewater into rivers for decades, and mercury gradually accumulates in downstream water systems.
Mercury-containing batteries are being replaced by mercury-free batteries.
Of course, waste batteries containing mercury have a negative impact on the environment (even slightly). Therefore, at the end of 1997, nine departments, including the State Economic and Trade Commission and China National Light Industry Federation, jointly issued the Regulations on Limiting the Mercury Content of Batteries, drawing on the experience of developed countries, requiring domestic battery manufacturers to gradually reduce the mercury content of batteries, so as to make the batteries sold in China reach a low mercury level in 2002 and a mercury-free level in 2006.
Judging from the actual progress, the domestic battery manufacturing industry is gradually reducing the mercury content of batteries according to the requirements of laws and regulations. According to the data provided by China Battery Industry Association, the annual output of batteries in China is 654.38+0.8 billion, the export is about 654.38+0 billion, and the domestic annual consumption is about 8 billion, which has basically reached the low mercury standard (the mercury content is less than 0.025% of the battery weight). About 2 billion of them only meet the mercury-free standard (the mercury content is less than 0.00 1% of the battery weight).
Professor Nie finally stressed that so far, there are no reports and scientific research materials about serious pollution caused by waste batteries at home and abroad, and the statement that waste batteries pollute the environment really lacks scientific basis and misleads the masses.
Improper centralized recycling of waste batteries will cause pollution.
Is it feasible to build a professional factory in China that can process waste batteries in batches, as some reports have called for? Peng Defu, an engineer in the Solid Division of the Pollution Control Department of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said that to build a waste battery recycling plant, it needs to invest more than RMB 10 million, and at least 4,000 tons of waste batteries must be recycled every year before the factory can operate. In fact, it is very difficult to recycle such a large number of waste batteries. Take the capital Beijing as an example. With vigorous publicity and encouragement, more than 200 tons were recovered in three years. In Hangzhou, a model city of environmental protection, the recovery rate of waste batteries is only 10%. It is understood that at present, two factories that can process and utilize waste batteries have been built in Switzerland and Japan, and now they are often shut down due to lack of food. This has to make us seriously consider investing in the construction of recycling plants.
Peng Defu also said that another way to deal with these centralized storage waste batteries is to bury or store them centrally according to the treatment method of hazardous waste, but it takes three or four thousand yuan to treat one ton like this, and it faces the problem of no funds. It is understood that a small enterprise in Sichuan province, under the banner of "environmental protection", used primary school students to help them break the collected waste batteries with hammers on Saturday and Sunday, recycle valuable battery casings and sell them as scrap iron, and discard the residues at will. Waste batteries do not pose a threat to the environment. It is very important that the battery should be covered with stainless steel or carbon steel, which can effectively prevent mercury leakage. The stainless steel or carbon steel sheath outside the waste battery is broken, and the mercury inside is easy to seep out. In this way, the harmful substances in the battery pollute the environment and damage the health of primary school students. This is absolutely unacceptable and must be strictly prohibited.