How to recycle / Returner’s checklist / Safety / Recycling process / Battery family

How are batteries and accumulators recycled?

You can recycle batteries and small accumulators conveniently on your shopping trip. If you can’t see a receptacle, please ask the store personnel for help. Please be sure to cover the terminals of the batteries and accumulators with adhesive tape before placing them in a receptacle. This easy trick keeps the terminals from touching and prevents a possible short circuit that may cause dangerous overheating. See more detailed instructions here.

More than 50% of the raw materials can be recycled

By taking your batteries and accumulators to a collection point you ensure that the raw materials contained in them stay in circulation on the material market. Every year, more than a million kilograms of batteries and small accumulators are delivered from collection points to be recycled at the Akkuser Oy processing plant in Nivala. At the plant, battery and accumulator types are sorted into different fractions so that the raw materials contained in them, such as nickel, iron and cobalt, can be separated and utilised as well as possible. In the near future, the zinc and manganese contained in Allies, i.e. alkaline batteries, can probably be refined in Finland into trace elements used in fertilisers.

There are fewer and fewer harmful ingredients

Today, batteries and accumulators contain few ingredients that are harmful to your health or the environment. Cadmium and mercury, which were previously used in the manufacturing of batteries and accumulators, are now rare, as their use has been restricted through legislation.

Read more:

•  Recycling instructions and the returner’s checklist
•  How to handle batteries and accumulators safely
•  What happens to returned batteries and accumulators?
•  Meet our charming Battery Family!