Battery recycling processes could use some fine-tuning, but it\u2019s still a simple and responsible way to get rid of them.<\/p>\n
Recycling old batteries \u201ckeeps you safe, keeps the waste industry safe, keeps the first responders safe and responsibly sees that battery reach a proper end of life,\u201d said Michael Hoffman, president of the National Waste and Recycling Association.<\/p>\n
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Small batteries can have a big environmental impact<\/p>\n
Batteries keep things running in our homes, powering everything from alarm clocks and TV remotes to gaming controllers. Millions are bought and used every year in the US, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n
They leave their stamp on the environment at nearly every stage of their life span.<\/p>\n
Many of the materials used to make batteries \u2014 elements like lithium and nickel \u2014 are mined. Over half the world\u2019s cobalt reserves are in Congo.<\/p>\n
Once mined, those materials are shipped around to be refined, fashioned into a battery and packaged for sale. All the ships, trucks and planes moving them add to batteries\u2019 carbon footprint. Making the batteries can release carbon emissions and pollution into the air and atmosphere, too.<\/p>\n
Though household batteries are far smaller than the big ones that power EVs and electric bicycles, there are a lot more of them and it\u2019s worth figuring out how to get rid of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne person\u2019s single battery is not necessarily a lot,\u201d said environmental scientist Jennifer Sun with Harvard University. \u201cBut everyone uses many batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recycle batteries at a registered drop-off site<\/p>\n
To begin, wrangle your old batteries and figure out what kind they are. Batteries \u201ccome in all shapes and sizes, but what\u2019s inside differs,\u201d said materials scientist Matthew Bergschneider of the University of Texas at Dallas.<\/p>\n
Alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries are generally single-use and come in AA, AAA and more. These can be safely thrown in the household trash in most places, but the EPA still recommends recycling them so that their materials can be made into something new.<\/p>\n
Lithium-ion batteries \u2014 commonly found in things like power tools and cordless vacuums \u2014 are a risk to cause fires and leak toxic gases in garbage trucks and landfills. A lot of rechargeable batteries are lithium-ion, but more single-use batteries are being made this way too.<\/p>\n
Be sure to look up battery disposal laws for your area: Places like New York, Vermont and Washington, D.C. have special rules about throwing away household or rechargeable batteries.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve corralled your batteries, tape their ends or put them in plastic bags to avoid the possibility of sparking. Then, take them to a drop-off location. How easy or hard this is depends on where you live.<\/p>\n
Many hardware and office supplies stores accept old batteries. Look into city and state drop-off programs or search by ZIP code using The Battery Network, a nonprofit geared toward safe battery recycling.<\/p>\n
Have a location in your home to collect the batteries over time and then \u201cat some point, hopefully among all the other things that we all have in our lives, you can find a convenient drop-off location,\u201d said Todd Ellis of The Battery Network.<\/p>\n
If your batteries look swollen, cracked or are leaking, don\u2019t drop them off. You\u2019ll need to get in touch with your local hazardous waste removal agency to figure out how to turn them in.<\/p>\n
Recycled batteries can have a second life<\/p>\n
Once batteries are dropped off at a collection site, they\u2019re sorted by type and taken to a recycling facility where they\u2019re broken down into their essential components \u2014 like cobalt, nickel or aluminum. Some bits can be used to make new batteries or other things. Nickel, for example, can be used to make stainless steel products and alkaline batteries can be turned into sunscreen.<\/p>\n
Safely recycling a battery doesn\u2019t cancel out the environmental cost of making it. But it does give the battery\u2019s components their best chance at becoming something new.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou continue to recycle and you don\u2019t have to go back to the Earth to mine,\u201d said public health expert Oladele Ogunseitan, who studies electronic waste at the University of California, Irvine.<\/p>\n
Good battery habits are also good for us. It protects against old or damaged batteries leaking toxic compounds into our cabinets and junk drawers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s one of the simplest and most controllable actions that we can take to reduce our impact,\u201d said Sun, the Harvard scientist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Battery recycling processes could use some fine-tuning, but it\u2019s still a simple and responsible way to get rid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[28,1685,192,7355,6659,793,97,149,6562,79,74,795,19048],"class_list":{"0":"post-481028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-climate-and-environment","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-environmental-conservation","12":"tag-fires","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-lifestyle","16":"tag-recycling","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-u-s-news","20":"tag-waste-management"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}