7.4 Lead

Lead is relatively small in tonnage and price is modest. Most lead is used for automobile batteries (~90%). Other traditional uses in the chemical industry, construction, soldering, anchors, and shot have all virtually disappeared. Lead-acid batteries constitute the largest market for lead, representing over 60% of the total lead consumption. In the late 1980s approximately 30 percent of batteries were acquired through take-back programs; it has since gone to over 60 percent. Through legislative compulsory recycling, by prohibiting their disposal in landfills or by incineration, and by providing tax incentives to battery recyclers, by subsidizing the transportation costs of spent batteries, more than 90 percent of spent batteries are now being recycled in the western world. Because of lead's corrosion resistance, it is available for re-use after many decades. This has led to a significant increase in the share of global demand met by secondary sources. Currently, virtually all recyclers in the U.S. produce pure lead as well as the lead-calcium alloys, whereas recyclers outside the U.S. tend to produce the alloys only.