FEATURED TOPIC – BATTERY RECYCLING
Positive thinking TROY ROWE, THE FOUNDER OF BATTERY RECYCLING COMPANY RESOURCE, IS PROOF THAT PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF.
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ess than five years after starting his recycling business with a small plant and big ideas, Troy Rowe is standing tall. ReSource, believed to be the first and only alkaline and zinc carbon battery recycling company in Australia capable of producing a fertiliser-grade black mass output, is installing a third-generation plant at a purposebuilt facility in Victoria. It will be home to the Southern Hemisphere’s first installation of an X-ray sorter for batteries. The X-ray Battery Sorter is capable of sorting 8-10 batteries per second, just over 1000 kilograms per hour, with a guaranteed 99.8 per cent accuracy. Built by a Belarus company that specialises in X-ray for security and hospitals, the X-ray Battery Sorter looks through the skin of a battery to determine its chemical composition, ensuring there no risk of contamination from other battery chemistries. “One of our biggest challenges has been accuracy of sorting,” Troy says. “Because we’re pursuing a fertiliser path as an end-product, the tolerance for contaminants, which are extensive in other battery types, is very limited. Our minimum is 99.5 per cent accuracy. “This X-ray plant is key to our process. It’s absolutely the most important thing. We can’t afford mistakes. We’re talking product that goes into our food source. Mistakes are not viable.” “Not viable” is something Troy has heard often over the past five years. The third-generation recycler says
26 / WMR / April 2022
Troy Rowe is recycling alkaline and zinc carbon batteries into a fertiliser-grade black mass output.
