'A very positive thing if it's being done properly': Shocking new claims that recycling plant is letting batteries burn

Okay. Our next guest lecturer at Deakin University in Hazardous Materials management, Doctor Trevor Thornton. Good morning.

Good morning Tom.

So the latest uh well maybe it's a boondoggle in recycling is appears to be batteries. So this company eco cycle is where the batteries collected at supermarkets go. But it is alleged not proven alleged that eco cycle is sending them to landfill and or burning them. Now, obviously, if that's true, that's not a good way to deal with used batteries. But does it is it profitable or can use batteries be economically made into something else?

Yeah, yeah. So batteries, all the components of it. There's a lot of, you know, valuable metals in them. So the process is basically to break that down. And then all those valuable materials are metals rather can be recovered and used for whatever purposes. So they're suitable for. So in terms of battery recycling it is a very positive thing if it's being done properly.

But why would Eco Cycle not be doing it properly? Is it because maybe they can't make money out of it, or there isn't the demand for the metals? Or is it like another sort of plastic bag in warehouse scenario?

It's a bit of all of the above. As such, the bottom line at the end of the day is, is is it economically viable to recycle or any material, not just batteries, but anything as such. And part of the problem was we in Australia and businesses are not using these recycled materials as their raw materials. So the cost of, um, of, I guess, processing and making it into a suitable thing is not being met by people buying it.

See, see, the problem is I can go and get one of the cheaper brands of, say, triple A batteries, you know, $10 will buy you a packet of 20 or something. So let's say they're $0.50 each. Now, something that you can buy brand new, full of power for $0.50. I'm struggling to understand can can that thing there be be be transported from the supermarket to the recycler. The recycler pulls it apart, you know, assembles the various metals and things and somehow make close to $0.50 worth of value.

What we've got to look at is what is the alternative? So if, for example, you don't recycle your batteries, I'll end up going into, you know, your red bin at home or wherever. And as we know, there's causing a lot of fires, a lot of contamination in landfills, etc. what we've got to accept is if we're using materials, we've also got to be able to recognise we have to pay for the recycling, etc. the environmental, I guess, management of those materials.

Mhm. See, the problem is, without looking at where they're made, my guess is that a lot of the batteries are just made in China, and it's very cheap, and they don't worry too much about that. They export them to Australia. We buy them, we use them. And then it's like, oh, what do we do now?

Yeah, exactly. So, you know, we have things like product stewardship schemes, extended producer responsibility schemes, etc. so it's like with TVs, you know, the, the industry has to have a recycling scheme in place, which might put a few dollars onto the, the cost of purchasing the the TV or whatever the material is. That way, if you've already paid for the recycling of it, right.

So what you're saying is somehow with the sale of batteries, we have to add an amount that would might go as almost like a subsidy towards this company or other companies, and that allows them to recycle them in an efficient and profitable manner.

Yes. And that added cost is already there through, uh, the extended producer scheme that applies to batteries, etc.. So what it is, is again, it gets back to, uh, part of the whole process is, is the fact that if I'm recycling batteries, I want to sell that material. AM I going to recover enough to, uh, you know, cover the cost of processing and a little bit of profit as well?

Um, and.

That's not happening.

Yeah. Well, that's the. Okay. And just quickly, where are we at with plastic bags now? Like I remember, you know, trying to do the right thing, you know, taking my surplus plastic bags down to the supermarket thinking, oh, this is good. And then we found that it wasn't good. Has that been fixed up in Australia now? Like, are we are we able to do something with all these plastic bags?

Yes. Just just recently, uh, you know, that falls in the category of soft plastics. So just recently has announced that, you know, soft plastics is coming back into, uh, recycling. So hopefully we'll be able to do that. But again, it goes back to we've got to have businesses buying that, uh, processed material. Otherwise we'll end up as we were before, just getting dumped and stockpiled and causing all those problems.

All right. Thank you, Doctor Trevor. Trevor Thornton there, lecturer at Deakin University. So if for recycling to work we actually have to pay a sort of like a fee when we buy something new. And I might add, there's a whole unknown industry that's coming at us all problem solar panels that have run out of their useful lives batteries, home batteries, car batteries, not just, you know, triple A batteries, uh,