Lead Recycling

What is Lead?

Naturally occuring in the Earth’s crust, the element Lead is found in small amounts. It is a soft and malleable heavy metal and its chemical element symbol is Pb and atomic number 82.

Other facts:

• Lead can be toxic to animals and humans causing health problems.
• Lead can also have some beneficial uses.
• Lead can be found in all parts of our environment – the soil, the water, the air, and even inside our homes.

A wide variety of products found in our homes has lead or lead compounds found in them. Including ceramics, paint, pipes and plumbing materials, gasoline, solders, ammunition, cosmetics, and batteries.

What are the different types of scrap lead?

• Clean Soft Lead
• Lead Batteries
• Lead Zinc Wheel Weights

Recycling of lead batteries

Approximately 85% of the lead used today is found in batteries (lead-acid batteries). All lead in batteries can be recycled and recovered for use in new products.

An estimated 47% of the worlds lead production results from lead secondary smelting. The most fully recycled consumer product by far is lead-acid batteries.

Environmental gains of recycling lead

• Recycled lead takes less than 25% of the energy required to produce lead from ore extraction.
• Recycling has a smaller carbon footprint than mining and also conserves ore reserves and reduces waste.
• Recycling can recover more than 97 % of the lead and plastic in a lead-acid battery.
• Reclaimed materials can account for 60-80% of the lead and plastic in a “new” lead-acid battery.
• Reduces the amount of lead from batteries ending up in landfills.
• Lead recycling has a closed-loop lifecycle meaning that it can continue indefinitely.

Lead Recycling for Commercial Businesses in the UK

We buy and recycle non-ferrous metals including lead from businesses across Kent.

Does your business produce any scrap lead? If yes, it can be a source of great extra profit at lead recycling centres.

Legislation in the UK requires distributors and manufacturers to ensure batteries are reused, collected and recycled.

For the best lead prices contact us today on:

Call: 01843 800800
Email: enquiries@reclamet.co.uk

Further reading about lead:
Lead – Wikipedia / Scrap metal types