Project managers face numerous challenges when performing maintenance or installation on wireless, communication, or UPS battery systems. These projects often occur in remote locations, requiring the coordination of multiple entities on strict timelines. Contractors are brought in from out of town, and deliveries arrive daily from various vendors. Coordinating and executing these projects on time and within budget is no small task. Union Battery is specially equipped to handle these types of recycling disposals with efficiency and ease. Here are a few ways that Union Battery accomplishes this.
Downstream Transparency
Battery maintenance or UPS decommissioning projects often require full downstream transparency. Large telecom and cable vendors want assurance that they are indemnified and released from any recycling liability. Union Battery is familiar with navigating these waters and provides this level of transparency to the involved parties. This ensures all parties that materials are being recycled ethically and legally in the United States under the governance of the EPA.
How to Package and Ship
Different types of spent batteries and spent electrical equipment require specific packaging and transportation methods. The Department of Transportation adheres to strict guidelines concerning how to safely transport these various types of hazardous and non-hazardous materials. Union Battery often provides expert-level advisement in the proper preparation and packaging of these types of spent materials. Union Battery also provides and is responsible for all shipping documentation required for the shipment as well as sourcing the appropriate transporter.
On-Site Service
One of the primary challenges with battery projects in the telecommunications and backup power industries is the coordination of an onsite pickup. As mentioned previously, these types of projects may have a remote project manager who is managing multiple deliveries of new products as well as coordinating the onsite facility manager with remote engineers or technicians flying in to complete the work. It is truly an orchestration of multiple parties. The worst thing that can happen to these types of projects is unexpected delays that slow down all subsequent steps of the project completion. It can be problematic if the scrap materials are still waiting to be retrieved when the time comes for the battery and UPS recycling. Union Battery is experienced and precise at executing these time-critical pickups. Transportation and logistics solutions are in place in all 50 states, and time-critical pickups are routinely accomplished. Even the most difficult pickup scenarios are met with success and timely execution.
Multiple Remote Site Program
Another scenario that many electrical contractors may encounter is battery maintenance and change-out at remote power/cellular sheds. Often there are multiple utility sheds in a region or state that may need battery change-out or decommissioning. These sites can be limited access and often have no address other than a single point of latitude and longitude. Again, these types of projects have specific timelines, and battery disposals have to take place on schedule and on time, despite their difficulty of access. Union Battery has completed many regional projects like this by deploying the appropriate transportation solution to pick up at many remote sites over a period of time.
Additionally, Union Battery has generated roll-up reporting for the client that details what was recycled at each location, at what volume, and at what address. This is helpful for the client to close out a complex and long maintenance or change-out process.
Recycling Documentation
One of the most requested features in a recycling scenario is appropriate end-of-life documentation. Fortune 500 clients and other responsible businesses want documentation from the recycling entity that the materials they recycled were disposed of in accordance with state, federal, and EPA regulations. Obtaining these documents is often difficult or impossible when working with a typical local scrapyard or recycler. Generating these documents is not part of their normal process. However, Union Battery creates end-of-life documentation for each and every battery disposal as part of its standard operating process. The generating client or contractor will receive a document after the recycling is complete that details the address where the materials were picked up, the total final weight of material that was processed, and finally an EPA identifying number for the scrap material’s end of life. This type of documentation is helpful for a client to minimize their risk of audit or exposure to any environmental liabilities that may be caused by harmful recycling processes.
Absolyte & Ni-Cad Recycling
In many legacy power systems, there are certain chemistries of battery that exist that are not often found in current power scenarios. These chemistries specifically include the Absolyte battery type as well as the Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cad) battery type. Each of these chemistries must be handled in a very specific way during their transport as well as during their recycling. In both battery chemistries, the element Cadmium exists in the battery, making recycling difficult and challenging. Union Battery handles both types of these batteries regularly and is familiar with the appropriate process for recycling them. These types of batteries are not recycled in the same way as a traditional lead-acid battery. They have their own process that is unique due to the cadmium in their makeup.
Union Battery is an industry-leading recycler with years of experience recycling all chemistries of batteries in the United States. By working with experienced partners in good standing with the EPA and expert transport and logistics solutions, Union Battery can recycle any chemistry and pick up in any location in the United States.
With logistical solutions in place for battery pickup and disposal across the U.S., Union Battery makes recycling projects quick, efficient, and simple.
