Batteries of options

Americans love our batteries: according to Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, about 3 billion of all sizes are sold annually. This works out to 10 of the common types per person (AA, AAA, C, D, 6V and 9V). So what can we do with them with they no longer power our products? The RBRC said more people are recycling them. It reports that battery collections in 2011 grew by 13.1 percent over 2010, when more than 7.6 million pounds of batteries were collected (the equivalent weight of 278 school buses) from over 30,000 retail, business and municipal locations in the U.S. and Canada. However, even batteries that we remember to recycle end up in different destinations, depending on what’s in them. Many municipalities opt to send alkaline (rechargeable and non-rechargeable) and carbon zinc AA, AAA, C, D, 6V and 9V batteries to a landfill, even if homeowners set them on the curb for recycling or take them to a recycling center. According to the Washington State Department of Ecology, historically, alkaline batteries have been made with mercury, which helped prevent battery corrosion and hydrogen gas development. In 1996, the Congress passed the Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act, phasing out mercury in alkaline batteries which led them to be labeled as non-hazardous waste. Carbon zinc batteries never contained mercury to begin with So while it is possible to reclaim other metals from alkaline and carbon zinc batteries, many municipalities, including the City of Spokane, choose to sort out these batteries from other recycling materials due to the reduced landfill risk compared with their recycling cost. “There’s actually no mercury in the alkaline batteries that we dispose of. Samplings of 5-10 alkaline batteries are actually tested every quarter at a lab in Spokane, to make sure of this,” said Roger Kaiser, hazardous waste technician for the City of Spokane. He said it can get confusing for consumers. “You try to educate a culture one way and then you say, ‘well this has changed but this is still the same,’” he said. “So we chose to sort out the alkaline batteries from recycling until we could find a cost-effective method to recycle them.” Kaiser says the city is currently working to find a recycling solution for batteries, which should be in place by October 2012, when all households and businesses in the shared Solid Waste system move to the single-stream recycling program. The city is considering other options for recycling, including bringing them to Interstate All Battery, which already redirects the lead-acid (auto and small motorized vehicles) batteries collected from the curbside program and three collection facilities, or sending them to a foundry in Seattle, which casts rebar from the collected metals. The city currently sends all other batteries for recycling to RBRC. Interstate All Battery recycles all batteries, sharing transportation costs with Interstate Battery locations in Seattle, which make it more cost-effective to ship unwanted batteries to Battery Solutions in New Howell, Michigan, for recycling. “We recycle all batteries, all chemistries, from businesses and consumers,” said Sheila Honnold, sales consultant with Interstate All Battery. While the shop accepts up to two cups (approximately) of regular household batteries for free, anything over that amount is charged per pound. Interstate All Battery pays for for lead-acid batteries, as do most recycling centers, and accepts liquid Ni-Cad batteries (used in aviation, rail and mass transit). “We guarantee that your batteries are recycled properly…we understand the importance of not throwing batteries in the trash,” said Honnold. In addition to recycling batteries, Interstate All Battery sells all types of batteries and builds those which they don’t readily carry.