Nickel-Cadmium batteries are also known as secondary batteries or rechargeable batteries. The Ni-Cd battery which utilizes Nickel Oxide and Cadmium separately as its positive and negative electrode materials with an alkaline electrolyte has the advantages of a longer life cycle with faster charging and discharging rate and more stable voltage. At the present time, used industrial Ni-Cd batteries are required to be disposed of as industrial wastes, however due to no domestic organization has been certified to treat the wasted Ni-Cd batteries, they need to be shipped oversea for treatment. Hampered by the time consuming export process, many factories are storing their used Ni-Cd batteries temporarily on-premises, which could cause secondary pollution to the environment through long term storage with improper storage facilities that deteriorates the used Ni-Cd batteries. According to on-site investigation, it was suspicious that some dealers retrieved the old batteries when delivering new batteries to the factories. The industrial Ni-Cd batteries are still not being fully under control due to current regulation only applies to the listed industries and not for the non-listed industries and other users. The project only sorted out Ni-Cd batteries of over 1 kg as industrial Ni-Cd batteries. According to the custom import data, approximate 3,123 tons of Ni-Cd batteries were imported from 1991 to 2003, among them about 36 tons came with machinery equipments. They were mainly made in France, Sweden, India, US and Japan. The project also visited 156 industrial Ni-Cd batteries users and importation organizations to understand current domestic utilization of Ni-Cd batteries. Among them, the none interrupted power supply systems and the train carriages occupies for 88% of the total supply. About 65% are utilized by public transportation and electric power supply industries. Due to the high expenses for off-the-boarder treatment and non-clear channel for treatment to the users, many users are storing the used Ni-Cd batteries on premises. The project team provided information to the factories during on-site visit. By December 2005, 19.68 tons of Ni-Cd batteries have been disposed of through legal channel, comparing with the quantity (0.87 tons) in 2004, the legal disposal quantity has been significantly increased. The project has demonstrated successful achievement through promotion and consultation efforts. The industrial Ni-Cd batteries have long life cycle and are utilized by non-industrial users who are not familiar with industrial waste disposal channel and also are confused with the lead batteries. However, through dealers recovering of wasted batteries, the industrial Ni-Cd batteries can be under better control. Therefore, it is suggested that the industrial Ni-Cd batteries to be listed as mandatory recycled items. Through dealers and importers recycling of the Ni-Cd batteries to have better follow-up control. Since further evaluations are still needed before implementation of mandatory recycling, current control mechanism will still be implemented during the evaluation period and expanded to newly listed industries. Therefore, if mandatory recycling is not adopted, the industrial Ni-Cd batteries can still be properly controlled by current regulation.

industrial Nickel Cadmium battery , secondary battery , Ni-Cd