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In the modern logistics and warehousing industry, forklifts, as important handling equipment, have an increasingly large usage of lead-acid batteries, one of their power sources. According to relevant data statistics, in China alone, the annual scrapping volume of lead-acid batteries for forklifts amounts to several million tons. However, lead-acid batteries contain harmful substances such as lead and sulfuric acid. If not handled properly, they can cause serious pollution to soil, water sources and air, endangering the ecological environment and human health. Meanwhile, metals such as lead in lead-acid batteries are precious resources. Reasonable recycling and utilization can not only reduce environmental pollution but also achieve the recycling of resources. Therefore, the environmental responsibility for the recycling and utilization of forklift lead-acid batteries is significant, and standardized operation procedures are of vital importance.

1. Environmental Protection Responsibilities for the Recycling and Utilization of Lead-acid Batteries in Forklifts

(1) The primary responsibility of enterprises

Enterprises that use forklifts are the primary responsible parties for the environmental protection recycling of lead-acid batteries. When enterprises purchase forklifts and lead-acid batteries, they should give priority to products that meet environmental protection standards to reduce potential pollution risks from the source. Meanwhile, enterprises need to establish a complete management ledger for lead-acid batteries, detailing information such as the purchase time, usage conditions, and scrapping time of the batteries, so as to effectively monitor their entire life cycle.

When lead-acid batteries reach the end of their service life, enterprises cannot discard them at will or hand them over to unqualified units for disposal. They must be handed over to regular recycling enterprises with a hazardous waste operation license. Some enterprises, in order to cut costs, sell used lead-acid batteries to illegal recyclers. These recyclers often disassemble and process them in a simple, crude and environmentally unfriendly way, resulting in the leakage of a large amount of harmful substances. Such behavior of the enterprise not only violates environmental protection regulations, but also seriously damages its own social image, and it also needs to bear corresponding legal responsibilities.

In addition, enterprises should actively carry out environmental protection education for their employees, enhance their awareness of the importance of environmentally friendly recycling of lead-acid batteries, standardize their operational behaviors during the use, replacement and scrapping of batteries, and prevent environmental pollution accidents caused by improper operations.

(2) Professional Responsibilities of Recycling enterprises

Recycling enterprises play a key role in the recycling and utilization process of lead-acid batteries for forklifts. First of all, recycling enterprises must possess the corresponding qualifications and technical conditions, and strictly build dismantling and processing facilities that meet national environmental protection requirements and standards. During the disassembly process, advanced mechanical equipment should be adopted to ensure the safe and efficient separation of lead plates, sulfuric acid, plastic casings and other components in the battery, and to prevent the leakage of harmful substances during the disassembly.

For the lead plates after disassembly, recycling enterprises should apply professional smelting techniques to refine them into reusable lead ingots. During this process, the generation of waste gas and waste residue must be strictly controlled to ensure that the emissions meet the standards. Sulfuric acid needs to undergo neutralization treatment to be converted into harmless substances before being discharged or rationally utilized. Plastic shells and other components should also be classified and recycled, and new plastic products should be made through regeneration processing.

Recycling enterprises also need to establish and improve quality management systems and environmental monitoring systems, regularly test and evaluate various indicators during the treatment process, ensure that the recycling and utilization process meets environmental protection requirements, and fulfill environmental protection responsibilities from a professional perspective.

(3) The Government's regulatory responsibilities

The government departments undertake important regulatory responsibilities in the field of lead-acid battery recycling and utilization for forklifts. On the one hand, it is necessary to improve relevant laws, regulations and policy standards, clarify the environmental protection responsibilities and obligations of lead-acid battery manufacturers, users and recycling enterprises, formulate strict market access systems, standardize the order of the recycling market, and severely crack down on illegal recycling, dismantling and disposal of lead-acid batteries.

On the other hand, strengthen the supervision over the entire process of lead-acid battery recycling and utilization. Through regular inspections and random spot checks, supervise the enterprise's ledger records, the operation of treatment facilities, pollutant emissions, etc., and impose penalties on enterprises that violate environmental protection regulations in accordance with the law. The government should also increase its support for the research and development of recycling and utilization technologies for environmentally friendly lead-acid batteries, encourage enterprises to carry out technological innovation, and promote the industry to develop in a more environmentally friendly and efficient direction. Meanwhile, through publicity and education and other means, enhance the public's awareness of the environmental protection recycling of lead-acid batteries, and create a favorable atmosphere where the whole society participates in environmental protection together.

2. Operating Procedures for the Recycling and Utilization of Lead-acid Batteries in Forklifts

(1) Collection and Transportatio

When the lead-acid batteries of forklifts reach the end of their service life, the using enterprises should promptly collect them and store them in a dedicated temporary storage place. The temporary storage place should have functions such as anti-seepage, anti-corrosion and fire prevention to avoid the leakage of harmful substances such as sulfuric acid in the used batteries and cause environmental pollution. During the temporary storage process, batteries should be classified and stored, distinguished according to different specifications, models and service lives, to facilitate subsequent handling.

During the transportation process, dedicated vehicles that meet the requirements for transporting hazardous waste must be used, along with professional escort personnel. Transport vehicles should take good protective measures such as sealing and leakage prevention to prevent accidents such as sulfuric acid leakage during transportation. Transportation routes should be planned in advance to avoid sensitive areas such as densely populated areas and water source protection zones, ensuring transportation safety. Meanwhile, transportation enterprises must strictly abide by relevant laws and regulations, apply for hazardous waste transportation licenses, establish transportation ledgers, and record in detail information such as transportation time, starting point, destination, and transportation quantity, to achieve full traceability of the transportation process of used lead-acid batteries.

(2) Disassembly and Separation

After being transported to recycling enterprises, used lead-acid batteries must first be disassembled. Professional disassemblers will use dedicated disassembly equipment to open the battery casing and separate components such as lead plates, sulfuric acid, and plastic casings. During the disassembly process, it is necessary to be careful to prevent sulfuric acid from splashing out. Staff members should wear protective equipment to ensure personal safety.

The separated sulfuric acid will be collected in dedicated storage containers and transported through pipelines to the neutralization treatment workshop. Here, sulfuric acid undergoes a neutralization reaction with alkaline substances, generating harmless salts and water. The treated liquid needs to undergo strict testing to ensure that all indicators meet the discharge standards before it can be discharged or further utilized.

The lead plates will be sent to the smelting workshop, where lead is separated from other impurities through high-temperature smelting. During the smelting process, a certain amount of waste gas is produced, which contains pollutants such as lead dust and sulfur dioxide. It must be purified by professional waste gas treatment equipment and can only be discharged into the atmosphere after meeting the standards. The purified lead ingots can be used as raw materials and reintroduced into the production of products such as lead-acid batteries.

(3) Recycling and Treatment

All kinds of substances that have been disassembled and separated must be recycled or treated harmlessly. In addition to refining lead plates into lead ingots and making plastic shells into plastic pellets, the waste residues generated during the processing, such as the slag produced during the smelting process, should be safely landfilled or comprehensively utilized. Some of the slag can be processed through special techniques to extract valuable metals, while the remaining part should be landfilled in accordance with the disposal requirements for hazardous waste. The landfill site must be equipped with complete anti-seepage and anti-leakage facilities to prevent harmful substances in the waste slag from polluting the soil and groundwater.

For the wastewater generated during the treatment process, in addition to testing and discharging the liquid after neutralization treatment with sulfuric acid, the wastewater produced in other production links also needs to be treated centrally. Through various treatment methods such as physical, chemical and biological approaches, heavy metal ions, suspended solids and other pollutants in the wastewater are removed to meet the discharge standards before being discharged.

(4) Quality Inspection and Supervision

Quality inspection and supervision run through the entire recycling process. Recycling enterprises should establish dedicated quality inspection departments, equipped with professional inspection equipment and personnel, to conduct strict inspections on various components after disassembly, recycled products after treatment, as well as the discharged waste gas, waste water, waste residue, etc.

For lead ingots, it is necessary to test their purity, impurity content and other indicators to ensure they meet relevant quality standards and can meet the subsequent production requirements. For recycled plastic products, it is necessary to test their physical properties, chemical stability and other indicators to ensure reliable product quality. The detection of waste gas, waste water and waste residue must be carried out strictly in accordance with national environmental protection standards to ensure that pollutant emissions meet the standards.

Government regulatory authorities will also conduct regular supervision and inspection of recycling enterprises, verifying their test reports, production records, etc., to ensure that the recycling process complies with environmental protection and quality requirements. Once problems are found, the enterprise shall be ordered to rectify them in a timely manner. In serious cases, penalties shall be imposed in accordance with the law.

The recycling and utilization of lead-acid batteries in forklifts is an important task related to environmental protection and sustainable resource development. Enterprises, recycling enterprises and the government should all earnestly fulfill their respective environmental protection responsibilities, strictly follow standardized operation procedures, and jointly promote the development of the forklift lead-acid battery recycling and utilization industry towards a more environmentally friendly, efficient and orderly direction, contributing to the construction of a beautiful China.