Recycling Batteries

I was speechless. Right after all that I have heard about the value of recycling batteries, and all of the effort I go to so I can recycle them, I was dumbfounded when an employee at Boulder's Hazardous Supplies facility, operated by Waste Management, told me the batteries I was bringing in didn't want to be recycled and he would throw them away.

What?!? He tries to explain to me that frequent batteries utilizes about the residence, also called dry-cell batteries, did not need to be recycled, and that the trash was a adequate way of disposing of them. He added that rechargeable batteries ought to be recycled although.

Batteries are referred to by their size (AA being a standard example) or by the goods they are applied in (flashlight battery or automobile battery). They oftentimes are referred to by the metals utilized to make them (nickle metal hydride or lithium). I was attempting to recycle AA batteries.

Dry-cell batteries (aka alkaline and single use) are the typical household batteries. The most standard ones we use contain A-A-A, AA, C, D, 9-volt (although some rechargeable batteries are also dry-cell). We use them in remote controls, flashlights, wireless pc mice and keyboards, laser pointers, musical toys, radios, and smoke detectors. They seem to be omnipresent. They include heavy metals, but less mercury than in years past. I was confused about the notion of them not getting regarded as hazardous waste and becoming recycled.

So I went to the Waste Management web-site various of them essentially. Indeed rechargeable batteries are in the hazardous waste stream. But so are normal batteries, I believe. In reality, Waste Management delivers a battery kit to make it easier for consumers to recycle their batteries. But, it really is the decreased amount of mercury that has dropped them down the list of recyclable items, or taken them off the recycling list.

So although the Waste Management website discusses recycling batteries, at least one of their personnel is misguided, and undoing some of the handwork they and their prospects are striving to do. Or is their web site confusing?

Perhaps the employee was saying that my dry-cell batteries weren't hazardous waste, but to tell me they didn't want to be recycled and he would throw them away for me is outlandish! Or so I believed -- just before beginning this article.

Exactly where can you recycle typical, household dry-cell batteries? It appears you can't really recycle standard household batteries -- unless you live in California, exactly where it is mandated. According to several web sites I read there are no identified recycling facilities in the U.S. that can practically and cost-effectively reclaim all forms of household
batteries. From what I can tell even the batteries collected in recycling programs are ultimately disposed of in landfills.

Most battery collection programs actually target button cell batteries (like those used in watches, calculators, wristwatches, alarm clocks, and hearing aids) and nickel-cadmium batteries. They finish up collecting all household batteries due to the fact so numerous many people struggle with identifying the distinct battery sorts. How is that valuable to folks, or the environment?

Ouch!

The typical US individual throws away eight household batteries per year. Given the heavy metals applied to make batteries, and the frequency of disposal, I now have to wonder if the concern over CFL disposal has been manufactured. Or, possibly the question is why isn't a major deal getting created of battery recycling and pollution?

Preserve recycling rechargeable batteries.at retailers participating in the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation recycling program, including Batteries Plus and Radio Shack, Dwelling Depot and Sears, Staples, Target and WalMart, and cell phone shops. But, since we cannot generally recycle household batteries at the moment, my recommendation is to save them for the day you can recycle them.

My other suggestion is to use significantly more rechargeable batteries and recycle them when they have reached the finish of their life cycle. I've been working with rechargeables for awhile, but it really is time to acquire significantly more so I can minimize the number of non-rechargeable batteries I purchase.