A field trip to the First Recycling plant, one of Kazakhstan's leading companies in the recycling of batteries, accumulators, and industrial waste, was held in Almaty. The tour followed a previous meeting held at the Almaty City Development Center JSC, where the development of a battery and electronic waste recycling system in the city was discussed.
Representatives of the Almaty City Development Center JSC participated in the field trip, learned about the recycling process, and discussed the prospects for developing an environmentally friendly recycling system in Almaty.
Battery recycling is becoming especially important for large cities today. A common battery, discarded with household waste, can contaminate the soil and water with heavy metals for years to come. Therefore, developing infrastructure for collecting and recycling such waste is an important step toward an environmentally sustainable Almaty.
The First Recycling plant processes up to 150 tons of batteries and accumulators per month. The facility employs approximately 30 people, and its production complies with Vera's international CO₂ emission reduction standard, highlighting the project's contribution to decarbonization and environmental improvement in the city.
The recycling process begins with logistics: waste is delivered to the facility, unloaded, and weighed. This is followed by one of the most complex stages—the manual sorting and disassembly of batteries and accumulators. Due to the wide variety of battery types, each category requires a separate approach and careful processing.
After processing, the facility receives copper, aluminum, plastic, and so-called «black mass,» which are then used for further industrial production. Some of the recycled plastic is used to manufacture new batteries, thus fostering a circular economy.
The facility doesn't just process batteries. It also processes industrial ABS plastic, cardboard, waste paper, glass, metal, and even tobacco waste. The facility operates a separate tobacco processing section, where the nicotinic acid extracted is used for further industrial purposes.
According to tour participants, waste disposal can only be resolved through the joint efforts of the government, businesses, and city residents. Further work plans to study citizen requests through Open Almaty to assess the level of public demand for a developed battery collection and recycling system.
The tour was led by plant director Rustam Yunuzbayev and production director Farkhodjon, who provided detailed information on recycling technologies and the industry's development prospects in Kazakhstan.
