The Association of Battery Recyclers (ABR) is the leading advocate for the North American lead battery recycling industry, committed to advancing safe, responsible recycling practices and environmental stewardship. With a history rooted in collaboration and responsibility, ABR represents industry leaders dedicated to protecting employees and communities and ensuring lead batteries remain one of the most sustainable and recyclable products in the world.
We’re committed to advancing responsible recycling practices that minimize environmental impact, recover valuable materials and support a strong, circular North American supply chain.
Want a quick, fact-filled overview of how the lead battery recycling industry supports jobs, manufacturing, sustainability and resilient supply chains?
Lead battery recycling delivers significant environmental and economic benefits while supporting a circular North American supply chain. In the United States, the industry also plays an important role in supporting domestic manufacturing and maintaining a reliable supply of critical mineral lead.
Lead battery recycling is at the heart of the circular economy, demonstrating how sustainability can work at scale. Through a closed-loop process, nearly every part of a lead battery, including lead, plastic and acid, can be recovered and reused. This system conserves natural resources, reduces waste and keeps valuable materials in productive use.
High Recyclability
Lead batteries have a 98% recycling rate in the U.S., making them the most recycled consumer product in the country.
Conserving Valuable Resources
Recycling recovers lead, plastic and other valuable materials for reuse, reducing the need for virgin materials and keeping resources in productive use.
Waste Reduction
More than 174 million lead batteries are recycled annually in the U.S., helping keep valuable materials out of landfills and available for reuse.
Energy Efficiency
Recycling materials requires less energy than producing many materials from virgin resources, helping reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
The circular lifecycle of lead batteries demonstrates how materials can be recovered and returned to productive use again and again. By keeping valuable materials in circulation, lead battery recycling reduces waste, conserves natural resources and supports a more resilient supply chain.
The lead battery recycling industry is an important part of the U.S. supply chain, providing recovered materials for domestic battery manufacturing. By recovering critical mineral lead and other valuable materials from spent batteries, domestic recycling helps keep these resources available to U.S. manufacturers and strengthens supply chain resilience.
Lead batteries provide reliable, proven energy storage for applications that are essential to everyday life and the economy. They start vehicles, support communications networks and data centers, provide backup power for critical infrastructure, and store energy across a wide range of applications.
As demand for reliable energy storage continues, lead battery recycling helps ensure valuable materials can be recovered and used again to manufacture new batteries. This closed-loop system supports a reliable supply of materials while reducing waste and conserving natural resources.
Discover the processes and people behind one of North America’s most established circular industries. See how lead battery recyclers recover valuable materials, support manufacturing and responsibly recycle millions of spent batteries each year.
Lead batteries are essential to transportation, communications, energy storage, national security and other critical applications. The professionals who responsibly recycle spent lead batteries play an important role in keeping critical mineral lead and other valuable materials available for continued use.
In the United States, domestic recycling supplies approximately 70% of U.S. lead demand, supporting American manufacturing and strengthening supply chain resilience.
ABR is proud to represent the people and companies that provide safe, responsible recycling services every day and help make this circular system possible.
