Waste lead-acid batteries are recycled and turned into lead and plastics (polypropylene and ABS etc.) through collection, disassembly, crushing, sorting, and washing. In particular, lead is recovered from the scrap by recycling companies and used as raw material in a smelter. Refined lead from smelters is reused as a raw material in new products. It is highly valuable to recover effective metals from waste lead-acid batteries that contain a significant amount of lead under environmentally sound management. In this study, we investigated the composition change and its cause in the process of use and phased out products to understand the discharge characteristics of waste lead-acid batteries. We also suggest examining the correlation between the waste lead-acid battery and the recovered lead to estimate the potential amount of recoverable lead. Finally, we produced a strategic method for accelerating national resource circulation by comprehending the flow of resources and their residues from wastes and propose it as a policy in baseline data.

• 조윤아(국립환경과학원 자원순환연구과) | Yoon-A Cho (Resource Recirculation Research Division, Environmental Resources Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research)
• 이희성(국립환경과학원 자원순환연구과) | Hee-Sung Lee (Resource Recirculation Research Division, Environmental Resources Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research)
• 엄남일(국립환경과학원 자원순환연구과) | Nam-Il Um (Resource Recirculation Research Division, Environmental Resources Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research)
• 김용준(국립환경과학원 자원순환연구과) | Yong-Jun Kim (Resource Recirculation Research Division, Environmental Resources Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research)
• 신선경(국립환경과학원 자원순환연구과) | Sun-Kyoung Shin (Resource Recirculation Research Division, Environmental Resources Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research)
• 김기헌(국립환경과학원 자원순환연구과) | Ki-Heon Kim (Resource Recirculation Research Division, Environmental Resources Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research) Corresponding author