Since implementation of battery directive, household batteries are collected at kurbside or in shops without differentiation of battery type. Therefore, recycling or sorting facilities receive an unpredictable mixture of batteries, which contain in addition usually impurities (non-batteries) between 1% and 5%. This mixture of portable batteries consists of 10 and more battery chemistries. Within a battery chemistry fraction, multiple subtypes and/or construction types can exist. Zn-containing batteries for example represent Zn-Carbon, Zn-Air or Zn-Manganese-oxide batteries. In addition, they can also be distinguished between Hg-containing or Hg-free batteries, or single cells versus battery packs. Thus, sorting needs be flexible under changing criteria according to the final recycling process.

Due to this complex challenge, no fully automatised sorting technology does exist in Europe today. Accurec still relies on manual sorting and has trained a specialised team for exact identification of battery types and chemistries. In addition, accumulators are more and more used for power supply of electronic devices and extracted from WEEE after their end of life. These cells usually do not have any labelling or marks. Based on conducted analysis, comprehensive data bank and knowledge of sorting team, it is a unique characteristic of Accurec to classify customers mixture of accumulators correctly.