During The Great Purge of 2018, I finally decided to deal with our gallon bag full of batteries. It was a mixture of some old computer batteries and regular household batteries. It used to be that you couldn’t throw any batteries into the trash. Older batteries contained mercury and since mercury is toxic, it was advisable not to add them to the landfill. In 1996 the United States created the Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act. This act banned the sale of mercury-containing batteries. Most primary or single-use batteries are now made of zinc-carbon or alkaline and are considered “safe” to throw away. Secondary, or rechargeable batteries are made of lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, nickel-zinc, nickel metal hydride, or lithium ion. The United States sells 3 billion batteries annually and simultaneously deposits 179,000 tons of batteries into landfills across the country. I doubt this is what Italian physicist Alessandro Volta had in mind when he built the first electrochemical battery in 1800. Volta aptly named his creation the Voltaic Pile. The Voltaic Pile consisted of stacks of copper and zinc plates, separated by paper discs soaked in brine. I searched around and found that Batteries + Bulbs accepts most batteries for recycling for free and charge a very small fee for other hard to recycle batteries. Target will also take your lithium-ion batteries from your old cell phone or MP3 player. It was a relief to finally get rid of our gallon bag of batteries and know that they didn’t just go into the trash. Just because we can throw most batteries away doesn’t mean we should. Check with your garbage company before putting any batteries in your trash. I checked with our garbage company and they do not accept batteries.
The bin at Target that's hungry for your sh!tty old electronics and batteries.
No comments:
Post a Comment