Recent media reports have questioned the
process of sending automotive batteries to be recycled in Mexico.
Lead-acid automotive batteries are the most
recycled consumer product in the United States. Responsible recycling of
batteries ensures the environmental protection and safety of our employees and
the communities where we do business, while ensuring a secure supply of lead to
meet customer demands for energy storage applications that are critical for all
economies.
Johnson Controls, global manufacturer and
recycler of car batteries, applauds efforts to raise environmental standards to
world-class levels. Our operations in Mexico, and in other places around the
world, exemplify our long history of manufacturing and recycling batteries
safely and responsibly.
Johnson Controls uses a closed loop
manufacturing and recycling process, which means a used battery never leaves
our process from the time it is picked up to the time it is recycled and
delivered back to our manufacturing facility to be used in a new battery. All
of the batteries we send to Mexico from the United States are recycled at one
of our two recycling facilities in Mexico. In turn, our recycling facilities in
Mexico help provide the necessary inputs for our battery manufacturing plants
that are also located in Mexico to serve the local market. Cienega was our
first recycling facility in Mexico and was acquired as part of a larger
transaction. It operates in conformance with Mexican secondary lead recycling
operating standards, and we are investing $70 million to bring Cienega up to
existing U.S. standards. Our second Mexican recycling facility was built in
Garcia in 2010 to operate in conformance with existing U.S. secondary lead
recycling operating standards.
In the United States, we are building a
recycling center in Florence, S.C., in which we are investing $150 million.
Until that facility is fully operational, a majority of the lead used in our
manufacturing of batteries in the United States is done by third party
recyclers in the United States, not in Mexico.
Our automotive battery business is designed to
distribute and recycle batteries in the most efficient manner possible. These
efficiencies across the network are key to our ability to serve customers and
maintain our operations within the United States. Since 2009 we have announced
almost $730 million in U.S. investments in automotive battery manufacturing and
recycling, creating more than 1,300 new U.S. jobs plus thousands of additional
jobs in construction. Our employee engagement and the health and safety of our
employees at all of our locations, including those in the United States and
Mexico, are at world-class levels for manufacturing operations among all
industries.
Johnson Controls recycles batteries
responsibly in all the markets where we do business. Unfortunately, some
corporate entities are distorting the truth and playing upon the public’s
environmental concerns to advance their own commercial interests and
self-serving agenda. They are showcasing the irresponsible actions of some
illicit recyclers to tarnish the reputation of the entire Mexican lead
recycling industry. An examination of the facts will find this to be the case.