Have you been tempted to just toss a used battery in the trash because you don’t know where to bring it to properly dispose of it? Or, do you have a pile or used batteries sitting somewhere in your house because you know you need to bring them somewhere to recycle them? Here are some reasons why you should NOT toss them in the trash and some places you can bring your old batteries.
SOME NUMBERS
- More than three billion batteries are sold each year in the United States, averaging about 32 per family or ten per person!
- The average person owns about two button batteries, ten normal (A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9V, and similar) batteries and throws away about eight household batteries per year.
- Americans throw out almost 180,000 tons of batteries. About 14,000 of those tons are rechargeable batteries; the rest are single-use. (If we start replacing single-use batteries with rechargeables, we are not only saving money, but ensuring that fewer batteries end up in landfills as well.)
- Batteries contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel all which can contaminate the environment when batteries are improperly disposed of or incinerated. They can pollute waterways as metals vaporize into the air and wind when burned.
- Heavy metals may leach from solid waste landfills into soil, groundwater, or surface area causing unsafe exposure. Some batteries contribute to about 88% of the total mercury and 50% of the cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream.
RECYCLING
In 1996, the Battery Act was signed into law to phase out the use of mercury in rechargeable batteries and to provide collection methods and recycling/proper disposal of batteries.
Button Batteries: Jewelers, pharmacies, and hearing-aid stores will usually collect mercury-oxide and silver-oxide button batteries to recycle and reclaim the metals.
Car Batteries:
- Retailers that sell lead-acid automobile batteries will collect them. The metals and plastics are reused so that typical lead-acid batteries contain 60% to 80% recycled lead and plastic. For more information on how to recycle your car batteries check out AAA’s Battery Roundup.
- Nearly 99 million wet-cell lead-acid batteries (used to power cars, boats, motorcycles) are made each year.
- A car battery contains 18 pounds of lead and one pound of sulfuric acid.
Industrial Lighting/Alarm Systems: Lead-acid batteries are used to power industrial equipment, emergency lighting, and alarm systems. Some automative stores or local waste agencies may accept the batteries for recycling.
Cell Phone Batteries: Lithium-Ion batteries are often in cell phones and should be disposed of carefully. If they are exposed to heat they may explode, so it’s best to keep them out of landfills. Visit Call2Recycling for more information. Some retail partners where you can drop your cell phone or similar electronic devices with lithium-ion batteries are The Home Depot, Radio Shack, Best Buy, and Lowes.
REUSING
Consider buying rechargeable batteries when available. There are some other great products like the solar powered batteries as shown here.
(Sources: ehso, Earth911 / Image: dolceta)
N.Parkington
Natalie lives in San Diego, California and enjoys a healthy organic vegetarian lifestyle (with chocolate as the exception...). She does what she can for the environment and is constantly making adjustments to become greener in all...
