Toxco Q & A

...an edited interview with Kathy Bruce, plant manager, TOXCO Lithium Battery Recycling

1. What do you do at Toxco?

We recycle primary and secondary lithium batteries. We are the only company in the world currently recycling primary lithium batteries, others recycle the secondary (rechargeable) lithium batteries, but no one else does the primary ones.

2. Who are your customers?

Our main customers are the US military, oil and gas companies, and battery manufacturers. We’ve shifted in the last few years from complete dependence on the US military to other industrial and consumer customers.

3. Is this a growing field?

Yes. For example the new hybrid cars use lithium batteries. We are working with a lot of companies: GM, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, to recycle the batteries from their new electric vehicles.

4. How long has Toxco been operating?

We’ve been here for 12 years. We currently employ nine people fulltime.

5. Does your staff require special training?

We do in-house training here. Our recycling technicians come to us with a certain amount of industrial experience. We train our staff to US standards because 95% of our customers are in the US.

6. Who owns Toxco?

Toxco Incorporated of Anaheim California. That company has three private owners and they’re all based in Anaheim.

7. Why did they locate Toxco here?

Trail has an industrial mindset. Toxco chose this location because they needed a location with a good industrial background and we had a reliable supply of argon from the BOC plant at Trail. The community and the regulators already had a great deal of experience and understanding of metals and recycling. There was also the availability of industrial and skilled personnel and sub contractors. In this area everybody grew up with an understanding of metals and if you handle something that’s very dangerous in a careful manner it’s OK.

8. What support did you have to start up?

We had support from the community. We held a series of public meetings in order to gain our initial approvals from the Ministry of Environment. Public support was critical. We initially received a temporary permit for six months to prove that we met all regulatory requirements, and then we were issued a full permit.

9. So how exactly do you recycle the lithium batteries?

We freeze the lithium batteries in liquid nitrogen, which reduces the reactivity of the lithium. They are then mechanical processed - shredders and hammer mills that break them up. The lithium is dissolved into a solution and we recover that as a technical grade lithium carbonate. We recycle all the material from the process: from the cardboard it comes in, the scrap meal that comes off the cases, and the lithium. That’s the primary battery; the secondary, rechargeable battery contains cobalt. We recycle that as a cobalt filter cake and sell it to a down stream refiner.

10. Is it dangerous?

Lithium batteries are very dangerous. They are highly reactive and they react with water. They are notorious for exploding, but in the process the explosions are controlled.

11. Has the plant met the owner’s productivity expectations?

We have surpassed expectations. When we started we were quite small and the quantities brought in were low in volumes. We won a contract with the US military to complete over 3,000 batteries from minuteman silos. These were the biggest lithium batteries ever made in the world they are 570 lb.

12. How much capital is invested in the plant?

Between $5-10 million.

13. What contributed to your success?

Good technology and a really good understanding of the batteries themselves primarily by our operating crew and our management. They really understand the hazards and how to deal with each one, because they are all different. I have an excellent crew.

14. Are they well paid jobs, similar to trade jobs?

Not quite, but close. We pay well and have an excellent benefit package. We have very little turn over; most of the guys here have been here for more than eight years.

15. Were there any roadblock or impediments?

The challenge is keeping up with the change in regulations both in the environmental and transportation field. We are also starting to import batteries from around the world, from as many as 20 different countries so we have to keep up with worldwide regulations.

16. Are lithium batteries big or small?

The ones we deal with mostly weigh about 6 lbs. They come in UN Certified crates. The batteries used in the oil and gas industry are in a 4 ft long staves. It’s a D size battery, like you see in a flashlight, but twice as long and they are all connected in series. So they ship these staves in vermiculite in a UN certified box. They are carried on the top of the ships and they are not allowed on passenger aircraft.

17. What changes would you make to the system if you could?

Regulations to divert batteries from going into landfills, we have also started a Big Green Box program to make it easier for small quantity generators or consumers to recycle these batteries. For a fee ($105) we send them a box, UN Certified, they fill it up and send it back to us. We had to get special permission for transportation because of the regulations from Transport Canada but we want to make it easier for people to recycle batteries. We’ve just got a contract to put one in every airport in the US.

18. When you recycle batteries is there a recycle fee you can claim?

Not right now. Ideally if you’d sell a battery in B.C. you should collect an eco fee. It’s not an easy thing and it’s not going to happen over night but I’ve been told it’s next after electronic waste. It is a major undertaking. We strongly support it.

19. Has the community benefited from having Toxco here?

Yes, mostly we have stable workforce. We have good high paying jobs. We buy as much as possible locally. We use a lot of contractors in the area, who are all excellent because they have that industrial experience as well.

20. What have you learned by being manager of Toxco?

To keep an open door policy and inform the public and the regulators of your current operations and what your plans are. An open line of communication and a good flow of information is essential. We don’t want to be secretive. We want anybody to come out and see what it is we do.

21. Who are your competitors?

The only competition is incinerators. More incinerators now are sending their batteries to us because the batteries damage the linings of the incinerators.

22. Can the area do anything better to encourage more innovative enterprises like Toxco?

Better air access into Trail would be great. Any customer that sends us batteries has to come here and audit us first to make sure we are environmentally compliant. We get US visitors at least once a month; they fly to Spokane and drive up. Castlegar is unreliable. They usually spend one day with me and one day checking out the area, they are all very impressed. But the access makes it hard to get here.