Terrapure Plastics Recycling Manager Martin Fournier shows visitors plastic chips from crushed batteries as they enter the recycling process. | Courtesy of Terrapure
Canadian company Terrapure Environmental brought a plastics recycling system on-line at its existing battery recycling plant in Quebec.Located in Ville de Sainte-Catherine, the $30 million facility is the largest of its kind in Canada and will allow the company to also recycle plastic battery casings. The PP casings will be washed, shredded and extruded into pellets, a press release noted.
Those pellets will be shipped to North American customers by truck or rail. Currently running five days per week, 16 hours per day, Terrapure noted the facility can produce about 10,000 metric tons of pellets annually.
Terrapure will now be able to recover over 90% of the constituent components in lead batteries, which typically contain 4% to 5% plastic by weight. Between its two facilities, the company recycles 12 million batteries annually.
Ryan Reid, president and CEO of Terrapure, called the addition “a significant milestone for our company, one that demonstrates not only our commitment to protecting the environment, but also to growing our operations in Quebec.”
“By adding plastic recycling to our well-established lead battery recycling capabilities, we are able to further close the recycling loop for our battery manufacturing customers,” Reid added.