Automotive Batteries
Once every few years, we replace our car batteries. Did you ever stop to think about where the old ones go and what happens to them?
Over the years, the number of automobiles in Israel and the world increase, which results in the growth of automotive battery quantity accordingly. Subsequently, dealing with battery waste has become an essential and extensive issue, and the used battery market is ever-growing.
A car battery lifespan is usually between 3-5 years. Once the battery dies, it becomes hazardous waste, as is defined in Israeli law, and needs to be recycled. Israeli law dictates that the handling of out-of-order batteries must be via recycling or material burying. Presently, one's possibilities for dealing with dead batteries are: either to bury the waste in Ramat Chovev for a fee or to recycle it in the Kornas factory in Israel for monetary compensation.
In the recycling factory, the batteries are shredded and separated into their different constituents. Most of the materials are recycled and sold as raw materials for various uses, and they bury the rest as hazardous materials.
Car batteries contain lead and sulfuric acid, and exposure to them can be extremely harmful to human health and the earth's soil, water, and air. Moreover, letting the batteries fall into the wrong hands can pose a significant security issue since the battery possessors can use its sulfuric acid to produce TATP explosives.
Furthermore, The lead in the soil contaminates the groundwater and thus the drinking water and can have hazardous health effects on humans, such as nervous system problems, brain damage, behavioral disorders, digestive diseases, high blood pressure, infertility, and more.
Additionally, the sulfuric acid contained in the batteries can have toxic and harmful health effects as well. Sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive substance; its contact with bodily tissue causes severe burns and can cause damage to the skin, eyes, mouth, nose, respiratory tract, and lungs. Moreover, exposure to it can cause suffocation due to throat swelling. Inhalation of high concentrations of it can cause pulmonary edema. In cases of high-level exposure to it, such as swallowing, it can cause intestinal failure and even death.
Sulfuric acid leaking out of used car batteries
Even though automotive batteries are a source of damage to the environment and health, we have observed that this field of hazardous waste has large-scale criminal activity. There is not enough law enforcement throughout the different stages of a battery’s life cycle, allowing environmental criminals to rake in substantial financial profit through illegal conduct. These criminal activities are essentially undealt with and continue to operate undisturbed, causing severe damage to the environment in the process.
How do their operations work?
Automobile repair shops exchange old automotive batteries for new ones with suppliers. Occasionally, the shop only gives the supplier a part of the total amount of used batteries in its possession in exchange for new ones, whereas the rest goes to a merchant who pays for them in cash without recording for tax purposes. Thus, the shop owner makes a profit from unreported black money while keeping the credit from the importer registered as an expense for tax purposes.
Furthermore, a portion of the batteries collected throughout the state are moved over to the Palestinian Authority. Once there, they remove the acid from the batteries and then smuggle them via Israeli seaports to third-world countries. One can sell acid-depleted batteries to recycling plants abroad at a higher price since there is no requirement to attend to the acid and its by-products; whereas in Israel, there is a requirement to bury the acid in Ramat Chovev.
Loading used batteries into containers. Sulfuric acid leaks out of the batteries.
We at the ‘Green Israel Forum’ endeavor to significantly reduce criminal activity in this field. Our report aired on Kan 11 and exposed the smuggling process that occurs under the noses of the authorities. Beyond the severe felony, we are talking about serious pollution of the environment and harm to humans and wildlife. Batteries contain hazardous substances such as lead and sulfuric acid that seep into the ground and pollute the soil and groundwater. And again, we are the ones that lose in this story.
The State of Israel declared in the past that it complies with the OECD regulations regarding hazardous substances, but as it seems, there is still a long way to go. Therefore, besides exposing and investigating the subject matter, we are submitting a bill that will help define once and for all the legal rules of used battery handling in Israel and hand over the responsibility of dealing with the issue to the state’s jurisdiction. Thus there will be state supervision on the activities, and we will hopefully be able to reduce the pollution to the environment and the damage to humans.
For the full report click here >>
