A novel green recycling process is investigated to prepare lead acetate trihydrate precursors and novel ultrafine lead oxide from spent lead acid battery pastes. The route contains the following four processes. (1) The spent lead pastes are desulphurized by (NH4)(2)CO3.(2)The desulphurized pastes are converted into lead acetate solution by leaching with acetic acid solution and H2O2; (3) The Pb(CH3COO)(2)center dot 3H(2)O precursor is crystallized and purified from the lead acetate solution with the addition of glacial acetic acid; (4) The novel ultrafine lead oxide is prepared by the calcination of lead acetate trihydrate precursor in N-2 or air at 320 -400 degrees C. Both the lead acetate trihydrate and lead oxide products are characterized by TG-DTA, XRD, and SEM techniques. The calcination products are mainly alpha-PbO, beta-PbO, and a small amount of metallic Pb. The particle size of the calcination products in air is significantly larger than that in N-2. Cyclic voltammetry measurements of the novel ultrafine lead oxide products show good reversibility and cycle stability. The assembled batteries using the lead oxide products as cathode active materials show a good cyclic stability in 80 charge/discharge cycles with the depth of discharge (DOD) of 100%. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.