The global culture of mass production and consumption has resulted in a monumental increase in the amount of waste being generated, indicating an unmet need for better recycling systems. Traditionally, waste is collected locally and processed at large-scale recycling facilities in a centralized location. While this treats a large amount of waste at once, high transportation costs and energy consumption remain a big problem with the method. Distributed recycling systems involving small-scale recycling facilities offer a sustainable alternative to conventional recycling systems. Such a system can greatly reduce the energy requirements for transportation and has the potential to increase recycling rates. While this type of system is still in its infancy, many studies have explored its use in recycling plastics, photovoltaic waste, and wastewater, with particularly promising outcomes in distributed plastic recycling. Therefore, the potential for distributed recycling systems needs to be explored to solve the global issue of waste management.
In a new study, researchers from Ritsumeikan University, Japan, proposed a new small-scale distributed recycling system for used batteries. “The feasibility to decentralize the recycling of e-waste needs to be analyzed, considering the different characteristics of each municipality. In this study, our focus is on obsolete alkaline batteries as waste product to be treated in a distributed recycling system,” explains Prof. Shoki Kosai, a member of the research team and the first author of the study. Their new system employed microwave irradiation, which offers selective, rapid heating and reduced energy consumption compared to furnace-based heating. The team’s findings were published in Resources, Environment and Sustainability.
First, the researchers conducted an empirical study to explore the usability of this microwave-based technique in recycling spent alkaline batteries. Then, they conducted an analytical case study to examine the effectiveness of distributed recycling systems in Japan. A total of 1,710 municipalities in Japan were considered in the study, which used energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions as metrics for testing the effectiveness of the proposed recycling system.