Remember to Properly Dispose of Your Batteries!
Whether we are talking about AA, AAA, C, D, car batteries, watch batteries, or anything in between proper battery disposal is very important. Batteries contain environmentally harmful substances such as mercury, lead, nickel, cadmium, and other metals. When introduced into landfills these substances can leak slowly into the surrounding land and groundwater. The best way to dispose of batteries is to find somewhere that will recycle them. Depending on where you live it may not always be possible to find a location to take non-rechargeable batteries, but because of The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation there is somewhere close to you that will accept all rechargeable batteries. You can find a location near you here: rbrc.org.
Unless you live in California, you may have trouble finding somewhere to properly dispose of normal non-rechargeable alkaline batteries (i.e. common AA, AAA, C, D batteries). In fact, Duracell even claims that “Our alkaline batteries are composed primarily of common metals — steel, zinc and manganese — and do not pose a health or environmental risk during normal use or disposal.” Well… that’s a little misleading to say the least. In fact, the state of California states that “All batteries are considered hazardous waste in California when they are discarded.” But generally speaking, if you don’t live in California there isn’t a lot you can do to safely dispose of alkaline batteries, but that’s just one more reason to switch to rechargeables.
Standard lead-acid car batteries are very environmentally unfriendly, but on the bright side over 97% of lead-acid car batteries are recycled. There are many reasons for this. For starters, 39 states require that lead-acid batteries be recycled. To see what the law is in you state click here. Used cars batteries are also very valuable. Without much effort you should be able to find a metal recycler that will pay for your used battery. The relatively high value of car batteries has a lot to do with the extremely high recycling rate, because otherwise worthless cars will almost always be stripped of their batteries before disposal.
Mobile phone batteries are commonly made of nickel metal-hydride, lithium-ion, lithium polymer, or other relatively environmentally benign materials. But that doesn’t mean that you should throw your old cell phone battery in the trash if it can be avoided. The same location that will take you rechargeable household batteries (find that location here) will also take your old phone battery.
Loading ...
Thursday, 26. March 2009
Where did you find that picture of the cylindrical recycling bin?
Thursday, 26. March 2009
Theresa – battery recycling bins like that are actually used in Australia. I don’t remember exactly where I got that image from.