No battery left behind in NZ’s first nationwide end to end recycling solution

Phoenix Metalman Recycling (Phoenix) founder and CEO, Eldon Reeve, says this represents the first time a complete domestic end-to-end solution for battery recycling has been achieved in New Zealand, to enable the product stewardship of an essential product used prevalently in society.

Phoenix has already prevented more than 100,000kgs of waste batteries from ending up in landfills. Since this programme’s inception, the chemistry mix has evolved into over 20 subtypes of batteries within these main categories: Alkaline, Lithium, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium.

To make it even easier for Kiwis to be part of the solution; recycling their end-of-life batteries, Phoenix is creating a network of hundreds of collection points in towns and cities right across the country.

“These locations will include popular hardware chains, product manufacturers, schools, community centres and shopping malls. For larger and industrial batteries, we also have our transportation fleet and drop off points at our 19 sites nationwide. Phoenix’s footprint has tripled within two years to deliver nationwide solutions like these,” says Reeve.

Phoenix has invested in ‘sort at source’ technology to produce accurate data about the volumes of renewables recovered. This data will also allow participating partners to report confidently about their own sustainability measures.

“This is a major milestone towards New Zealand delivering product stewardship and achieving its 2030 UN climate goals, which Phoenix is proudly committed to through our Toitu Envirocare Net Carbon Zero programme and operational environmental management practices,” says Reeve.

Phoenix Product Stewardship Manager, Jasmine Faulkner, has been focusing on this offering since 2019 and says: “The solution encompasses all batteries, ensuring each battery chemistry is confirmed and separated - from domestic lithium batteries used in households through to heavier industrial and vehicle batteries that all carry Dangerous Goods classifications”.