The little source of energy we call ‘a battery’, makes our lives much easier every day. Batteries are to be found in ‘almost everything’, such as remote controls, smoke detectors, cellphones, laptops, electrical bicycles and even cars. Batteries have literally transformed our world. It offers the opportunity to modern society to live ‘as wirelessly’ as we already do.

But every story comes to an end: Also batteries will wear out eventually, or they will break down. Here is Campine, who takes over the steering wheel. Campine buys old and/or broken car batteries, and refines the lead out of the batteries in its lead recycling division, to make reusable materials out of it. There we are, creating a circular economy is in our DNA.

‘Do you still manage to buy sufficient car batteries to recycle, despite of the increase in electrical cars?’ This is a question we get to hear all the time. At Campine, we are very happy to announce that our future looks bright: In electrical cars, there is a lead-acid battery too, next to the Lithium-ion battery. If not, how would you be able to even turn on the lights or, very important, to use the horn? We expect to keep processing at least our usual amount of 240 tons of car batteries every day in the future.

Whether you ‘celebrate’ battery day, or you don’t, today is the perfect day to take a moment to dwell on the comfort of batteries, and especially on how important it is to re-use them in a sustainable way, and to recycle them afterwards.

February 18th: National Battery Day
February 18th: National Battery Day