Launch of Australia's first lithium battery recycling plant

Australia's first lithium battery recycling plant has been officially approved in Victoria, and a $16.5 million state e-waste treatment plan has been launched.

Established in New Gisborne by Envirostream Australia, Victoria, the factory is the first country in the country to recycle lithium batteries-now ubiquitous power sources for mobile phones, tablets, electric cars and home energy storage systems.

But while batteries, especially lithium-ion batteries, play a central role in driving the world's digital and clean-energy revolution, only 3 out of 10 Australian batteries are being recycled -- the OECD's lowest rate.

Envirostream's $2 million recycling facility, which went into operation last year, is trying to change that. In 2017 alone, the plant recovered 240,000 kilograms of batteries that would otherwise have been landfilled or shipped to China for disposal.

Victoria's Minister of Energy and Environment, Anbuluoxiao, attended the official opening of the facility and took the opportunity to release details of a plan to accelerate recycling of e-waste in the state.

E-Waste-or e-waste-is defined as any plug or battery that has reached the end of its useful life; Including old laptops, computers, audio equipment, refrigerators and other white appliances, hair dryers, televisions, heaters and air-conditioners.

The amount of e-waste generated in Victoria is expected to increase from 109,000 tons in 2015 to about 256,000 tons in 2035.

The plan, which is being launched by Victoria's Sustainable Development Department, will take effect on July 1, 2019, ahead of a forthcoming state ban on e-waste to landfills.

It includes a grant of $15 million to help Victorian Parliament and state government entities upgrade infrastructure and collect e-waste in more than 130 locations.

This will ensure that 98 % of Melbourne itself is within 20 minutes of the electronic waste disposal point, and 98 % of the Victorian people are 30 minutes away from one of them.

It will also include a $1.5 million campaign to educate Victorian people about the environmental and economic benefits of e-waste management and reuse, donation, repair or recycling.

For Envirostream, the Victorian Department of Sustainable Development has allocated $40,000 to facilitate the company's recovery of valuable materials from lithium batteries.

"As one of the country's pioneers in electronic waste reprocessing, it helps protect the valuable resources of landfills," said Stanley Krupan, Victoria's chief executive.

"Envirostream is demonstrating how the Australian resource recovery sector can develop opportunities to create jobs in regional communities and capture valuable chemicals, copper, steel, nickel, lithium, other metals and graphene, to be sent to South Korea for new batteries."

Andrew McKenzie, director of Envirostream, said that recycling batteries at Xinjisiboen will create five new jobs next year and help Victoria's recycling capacity.

"We have a nationally coordinated partnership to increase the low recovery rates for Australian batteries and mobile phones and hope to ensure that these recyclables are recovered? What? Resources are not only discarded or sent offshore for recycling. "

"We are in an increasingly mobile world. Lithium batteries are now the main mode of energy storage for domestic and industrial use, and like other electronic waste, their use is growing rapidly, "he said.

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