The pollution of Lead-acid battery production can not stop

In recent years, the state has issued various policies and measures to regulate the production and recycling of lead-acid batteries. However, the reporter's research in Jiangsu, Guangdong, Ningxia and other places has found that the pollution phenomenon of lead-acid batteries in the production and recycling process has been repeatedly banned. Especially in the recycling process, on the one hand, formal recycled lead companies are generally "not enough to eat", while on the other hand, a large number of used batteries flow into the "black market."

Industry insiders believe that lead-acid batteries have serious lead and acid pollution hazards in the production and recycling process, and frequent pollution incidents exacerbate heavy metal pollution. In order to effectively implement the extended producer responsibility system, it is necessary to further improve relevant policies and regulations, introduce the environmental deposit return system, and carry out classified transportation of used lead-acid batteries.

Pollution of lead-acid battery production

The problems such as no place to go, excessive stacking or even illegal transfer of lead-containing waste generated by enterprises have become the focus and difficulty of environmental safety supervision involving heavy metal pollution.

In May this year, the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology conducted an interview with Jiangsu Rishi Battery Co., Ltd. and found that Jiangsu Rishi Battery Co., Ltd. had serious violations of the "Lead Battery Industry Standard Conditions." Including the discharge of waste water without statutory sewage outlets was punished by the local environmental protection department, some lead production workshops were not closed as required, production areas were not strictly separated from non-production areas, and the number of employee blood lead tests was insufficient.

The Jiangsu Provincial State Control Source Platform found that the company's self-monitoring program updated in January 2017 showed that the Rishi battery is mainly engaged in the manufacture of lead-acid batteries and the recycling of used batteries, and is a heavy metal national control enterprise. In addition to general pollutants, the industrial waste water of the Rishi battery contains heavy metal lead, and the total exhaust manual and automatically monitored pollutant items include COD, pH and lead.

Lead is a heavy metal that is extremely harmful to the human body. After entering the human body, lead and its compounds may cause harm to nerves, hematopoiesis, digestion, kidneys, cardiovascular and endocrine systems, and even lead poisoning.

The Environmental Protection public welfare organization sampled the waste water suspected to have been stolen from the company and commissioned the sample to be tested and analyzed by a third party with testing qualifications, "Biwei Shenmei Commodity Inspection(Shanghai) Co., Ltd."(referred to as "Biwei Inspection"). The analysis provided by the Bive test showed that the pH of the suspected stolen waste water sample sampled by the environmental welfare organization on the outer wall of the Lexus battery was 2.23, which was strongly acidic and the heavy metal lead content was 8,150 ug/L.

It is not an example that pollution occurs in the production of lead-acid batteries. In yifeng industrial park in Jiangxi province, according to media reports, an open air sludge tank of a battery plant was filled with lead slag and lead mud, and lead waste was privately buried.

According to an Eastern Province environmental protection department, after many times in the lead acid battery and recycled lead industry comprehensive remediation, found that by the economic benefits and technical conditions, the disposal capacity of serious hazardous waste is dwarfed by the actual amount of production. The problems such as no place to go, excessive stacking or even illegal transfer of lead-containing hazards generated by enterprises have become the focus and difficulty of environmental safety supervision of heavy enterprises.

Bulk of used batteries into the "black market"

Due to limited recycling capacity and regulatory loopholes, a considerable part of the used batteries went to the "black market." At present, the chaotic situation of waste lead-acid battery recycling industry still exists, and more than half of the provinces in the country still lack units that are qualified for the recycling and disposal of used lead-acid batteries.

Walking into the production workshop of Ningxia ruiyin nonferrous metals technology Co., Ltd. in lingwu, Ningxia, the reporter saw a piece of used lead-acid batteries entering a "big tank" through the conveyor belt and being mechanically dismantled. The battery acid produced in this process is purified by the layer of water treatment system and eventually becomes a relatively clear middle water.

According to Ningxia Environmental Protection Agency, there are currently two qualified lead-acid battery recovery and treatment companies in Ningxia, with a total processing capacity of 180,000 tons per year. According to estimates, Ningxia produces about 80,000 tons of used batteries each year, but the two companies can only recover 50,000 tons of used batteries each year, and a considerable part of the used batteries still flow to the "black market."

The investigation of the reporter found that in recent years, there have been frequent cases of pollution of illegal workshop lead recovery points. For example, in June 2017, the Environmental Protection and public security departments of Nantong Tongzhou District, Jiangsu Province jointly cracked five environmental illegal cases of illegally dumping waste lead-acid battery waste liquid; In January 2018, the public security department of Shanxi Province knocked out a criminal group that dismantled, smelted, and sold lead ingots as a raw material.

"When the public security department cracked down on the 'small workshop', the business of the company was obviously much better. "Ningxia Ruiyin Nonferrous Metals Technology Co., Ltd. Chairman Yangwenli said.

China is the world's largest producer and exporter of lead-acid batteries. According to the latest figures released by the NDRC, in 2017, China produced 4.72 million tons of lead, accounting for about 44 % of the world's total lead production. The recycling of used lead-acid batteries has a long history. As early as 2010, the "Comprehensive Prevention Plan for Heavy Metal Pollution in Battery Industry(Consultation Draft)" promulgated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pointed out that the organized recovery rate of used lead-acid batteries in developed countries such as the European Union, the United States, and Japan has exceeded 90 %. Our organized recovery rate is less than 30 per cent.

In fact, in order to regulate the recycling of used lead-acid batteries, in recent years, the relevant departments of the country have successively issued a variety of policy measures. However, the disordered situation of waste lead-acid battery recycling industry still exists.

Squeezing living space in formal recycling enterprises

At present, in the recycling of waste lead-acid batteries has formed a "bad money to expel good money" situation. Some illegal "small workshops" take advantage of almost zero costs and compete with formal companies.

The reporter's investigation found that the following reasons led to the formation of "bad money to expel good money" in the recycling field of used lead-acid batteries.

First, formal recycling enterprises have high production costs. Yangwenli said that in fixed assets investment, the company's environmental protection equipment accounted for 40 %, plus transportation, depreciation and other factors, environmental protection costs accounted for more than 20 % of the total cost of recycling lead. Illegal "small workshops" can rely on an axe and a stove, almost at zero cost, so that they can significantly increase the purchase price and compete with formal companies.

Second, there is no joint force between the departments. Respondents believe that the amount of used lead-acid batteries is large, and it is difficult for the relevant departments to fight alone. At present, the recycling of used lead-acid batteries in regular car 4S stores is relatively standard, but the layout of car maintenance points is scattered, varied in scale, and numerous., It also makes it harder for regulators to regulate.

Third, consumers are less aware of recycling. The head of the Guangdong Recycling Economy Association said that due to the lack of consumer awareness of the hazards of used lead-acid batteries, it is impossible to actively participate in the recycling of used lead-acid batteries, resulting in many battery recycling equipment in life. In addition, many consumers do not have a sense of resistance to illegal recycling channels.

Extension of producer responsibility must be pursued

In recent years, the establishment of an extended producer responsibility system has become a consensus in the industry to solve the problem of recovery of lead-acid batteries. Some local governments, social organizations, and enterprises are actively implementing the extension of the production responsibility system for lead-acid batteries.

With the continuous expansion of market demand, China has become the world's largest lead-acid battery market, and the number of waste lead-acid batteries produced each year also exceeded 3 million tons. The market potential of waste lead-acid battery recycling can not be underestimated. In each battery, lead plates account for 74 %, sulfuric acid 4 %, and plastics 20 %.

For a long time, due to China's waste lead-acid batteries have not established a complete recycling system, most of the waste lead-acid batteries eventually flowed into illegal small workshops for simple dismantling, lead plate left, acid directly dumped, the overall utilization rate is extremely low, the human body and the ecological environment caused damage. Of the 3.3 million tons of waste lead-acid batteries produced each year in China, the proportion of formal recycling is less than 30 %, laying a hidden danger of pollution.

In recent years, the establishment of an extended producer responsibility system has become a consensus in the industry to solve the problem of recovery of lead-acid batteries. Its core is to encourage producers to promote product source control and green production by guiding them to bear the responsibility for recovery and recycling after products are abandoned. In order to maximize the efficiency of resource utilization throughout the life cycle of the product.

In December 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Extension of Producer Responsibility System" to implement the extended producer responsibility system for four types of products, such as lead-acid batteries, and required manufacturers to be guided to establish a full-life tracking system to support the use of "old for new" methods to increase recovery rates. And to explore the lead-acid battery manufacturers centralized collection and transregional transfer methods.

In July 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission held a seminar on the implementation of the extended producer responsibility system for lead-acid batteries. It discussed ways and means to improve the system of statistics, verification, evaluation, supervision and target adjustment, and proposed recycling targets and decomposing and implementing plans.

In order to promote the standardized recycling of lead-acid batteries, some local governments, social organizations, and enterprises are actively implementing the extension of the production responsibility system for lead-acid batteries through different levels.

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