Energizer Launches AA Battery Made of 4 Percent Recycled Materials

Energizer announced a battery that’s made with 4 percent recycled battery material. The Energizer EcoAdvanced “super-premium” battery, positioned at the top of Energizer’s alkaline AA lineup, will carry a 25-30 percent price premium at retail and will be sold at major retailers in the U.S. and Canada, emailed a company spokeswoman Tuesday. Responding to our question on battery life, she said the EcoAdvanced battery is the company’s longest-lasting alkaline type but didn’t quantify by how much, saying battery life is “dependent on the device and how the device is used.” In a statement, Michelle Atkinson, chief marketing officer, said, “Industry experts long believed it was impossible to create a battery made with recycled batteries while maintaining performance.” Energizer engineers spent seven years creating EcoAdvanced, which Atkinson called the company’s highest performance alkaline. The company created “proprietary partnerships” and an “innovative approach” that transforms recycled battery material into a “high-performance active ingredient,” she said. When used with energy rings, the ingredient results in a long-lasting battery with lower environmental impact due to less mining of virgin material in the manufacturing process and a reduction in the number of batteries consumed. Energizer plans to continue development of the technology toward a goal of producing a battery that uses 40 percent recycled material by 2025, said Atkinson. EcoAdvanced is the first step in creating value for recycled battery material, “which until today has had little or no economic value,” she said. On the company’s plans to encourage consumer recycling of batteries that can be reused to make recycled types, Atkinson said Energizer is a founding member of the national organization Corporation for Battery Recycling. CBR has formed six pilot programs to provide insight to the optimal collection, shipping, sorting and processing methods for discarded batteries, she said.