Battery Recycling

Believe it or not it is possible to reuse all materials recovered from an old completely dead lead acid battery.
Lead can be melted down to produce new plates.
Active materials (lead oxides) can be recovered, refined and reused for making new active materials for new plates.
Negative plates can be recovered and used to make new batteries.
There really isn't much waste at all - it can all be reused.

Recovering Lead Oxide:
If you cut the top off an old dead battery and remove the plates you will find that the positive plate active material is still there but probably choked with sulfate and the lead plate grid will most likely be completely corroded away. Although it looks like a complete mass of corroded shit' what's left of the positive plates can be used as active material for making new plates. The corroded grid material has of course been completely converted into lead oxide (active plate material). So basically the entire positive plate is just a brittle mass of lead oxide and sulfate crystals. This mass of shit can be crushed up back into powder, refined and reused to make active material for pasting on to new plates.
To recover the oxide - first remove all the positive plates (or what's left of them) and place them into a container preferable a metal container. Using something hard and heavy (I use a 25mm thick steel rod) begin crushing the material up. Start slowly' there will still be small pieces of the grid left. After crushing you should be left a fine black/grey powder. There will still be small pieces of grid and lead left in the powder so sifft until all that remains is very fine black/grey powder.

Making Paste:
Lead oxide powder is mixed with sulfuric acid and water to make a paste with the consistency something like firm mud.
This paste is then pressed into the grid structure of a plate and cured. The curing of the paste is very important. The paste must not crack or break away from the grid surface. Mixing in small amounts of various fibers such as fiberglass and the glass fibers from recovered separators can help to strengthen the paste and prevent cracking and paste separation.
Battery manufactures add all sorts of things to the paste in an attempt to improve adhesion to the grid and to extend battery life.

I do not recommend making pasted positive plates. As positive plates will suffer from anodic corrosion and will not last very long as apposed to solid plates.
Most pasted positive plate batteries have a maximum life of around 5 - 10 years provided perfect condition and maintenance.
I would recommend only making negative pasted plates. They do not suffer from the effects of anodic corrosion and should almost last forever - 25+ years.

Plate Curing:
After pasting plates must be cured. This hardenns the pasted and bonds it to the plate.
Plates are usualy curred at around 30c in high humidity (90%) for about 48 hours. This can be done in a conventional oven at home. Just stick em in the oven with a pot full of water. You will have to keep an eye on the water. After curring plate are left to dry for about 3 - 4 days.