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Battery Disposal


Shastapete

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What do you all do with your spent disposable batteries at the end of the day?  I have a number of Powerex 2700 that I primarily use, but inevitably disposables come into play now and then.

 

I know there are laws, certainly in CA, that mandate they be recycled. I've been just tossing them in the bottom of one of my cases and forgetting about them. So, today I finally re-organized my gear and half filled a shoe box with dead AA's

 

I'll be looking for a place in NYC to drop them off, but was wondering what you all do with yours

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Location sound has a battery recycle box on the counter in the repairs and service department- I just noticed it the other day when I picked up something I had sent in to be repaired. I'm now going to keep onto my old batteries in box and next time I go to LSC I'll just drop them off. Not sure if any of the NY vendors has the same thing but might be worth asking.

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Rechargeable batteries can be dropped in any number of recycle bins, including Home Depot. They can be, and are, recycled.

Lithium disposable batteries must be fully depleted in order to be non-toxic.

Alkaline batteries are non-toxic. Period.

Any collection facility for disposable batteries will simply collect and dispose of these batteries. Why it's "illegal" in CA to throw these away is a mystery. Call me a criminal.

There are other threads about this.

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I was told Home Depot will take them, but I keep forgetting to look at the one closest to me. I used to take them to Whole Foods, but the one I go to stopped taking them "temporarily". Ikea used to take them, but I am not sure if they still do. 

 

Does NYC have recycling centers where you can drop stuff off? 

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I thought you could throw away alkalines in Cali. I remember working at Coffey and we got a notice saying it was legal to throw them away like normal garbage. Granted, that was 7 years ago, and things have probably changed since then, but I bet most of the average consumers out there are just throwing their dead alkalines in the trash.

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I did a lot of research, and alkaline batteries are completely non-toxic. I prefer the idea that I throw them away (as infrequently as I use them) and they are dispersed amongst the trash. If they're all collected up and then thrown away in a big clump, as I was told a few years back is what happens by a company who collected them, I somehow imagine it being more toxic.

Even though it's against the law, I throw away disposable batteries. I do, however, fully deplete my used lithium AA in a battery operated LED prior to throwing them away. Once again, research revealed once they are fully depleted they are considered non-toxic.

They are also then lighter, and much easier for small birds and woodland creatures to pick up an feed to their children.

Robert

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It would be nice to know what happens to the batteries tossed into the disposal box (Trew Audio has them, too).

 

Anyone know?

 

gt

 

PS: The content of Alkaline batteries is not an environment hazard, and those batteries are not included as such by the EPA. If there is a law somewhere that prohibits them from being put in the trash, I'm guessing it's an oversight or overreaction. I suppose a case might be attempted about them being a fire hazard (short circuiting), but I doubt that's a reasonable argument, either.

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Glen,

I asked a "collector" a few years back, and they said when the box is full they put it in the dumpster out back. Alkaline batteries are not recycled, because there are no materials in the battery which make it financially feasible.

The law in California forbidding throwing away batteries is newer than the EPA report declaring alkaline batteries non-toxic. I imagine it's easier to tell the public not to throw away batteries at all than it is to describe what's ok to throw away and what isn't.

Robert

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http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/stuff/harmful_hh_prod_special_waste.shtml

 

(And in NYC you can throw away alkaline batteries)

 

Not so, apparently... From the linked page

 

** Batteries: (1) Do not mix alkaline batteries with lithium or rechargeable batteries. (2) There are special handling requirements for lithium and rechargeable batteries, see Safety and Packaging Requirements. (3) It is legal for residents to discard alkaline batteries in the regular trash.

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Not so, apparently... From the linked page

 

... (3) It is legal for residents to discard alkaline batteries in the regular trash.

The above quote is probably left over from pre-1996, before which time a small amount of mercury was in alkaline batteries, and after which time there has been none. Next thing ya know they'll be telling us that margerine is healthier than butter, and that hybrid cars are better for the environment than diesel powered cars with the same performance. Both statements, it turns out, are not true.

 

Linked from the same page: 

 

"Alkaline batteries can be discarded in the trash. Standard alkaline batteries are not considered hazardous waste, since they no longer contain mercury. Place batteries with your regular trash, not in your recycling bin."

 

* * * * * * *

From Wikipedia:

 

Recycling

Alkaline batteries are not valuable materials, so [recycling] disposal has a net cost to the party disposing of the material. [In other words, it costs more in energy to recycle Alkaline batteries than it does to build them from scratch.]

* * * * * * *

So, for the environment, and to reduce our carbon footprint, keep your used alkaline batteries out of recycling bins. Throw them in that special under-rated container labeled "trash".

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hrmmm but saying alkaline batteries are not financially worth recycling isn't the same as saying they are fine to throw in a land fill. If nobody is recycling them, then there isn't much you can do, but a lot of municipal recycling started when it was a money loser, and now a lot of them make money. Side effect in cities is people digging through your recycling and pulling out the aluminum cans. 

I wonder if the places that process the batteries just sort out the lithium and toss the alkaline. 

 

There's something unnerving about seeing a copy box overflowing with alkaline 9volts that you know is headed to a dumpster. 3-5 mixers per day, plus lots of Lectro IFB.  After working on a reality show and seeing that every day, I started buying iPowers. 

 

Great, now I look like a crazy hoarder with boxes of batteries I was slowly taking to various stores. :) 

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Are we reading the same quote? To me, these are equivalent statements:

 

(And in NYC you can throw away alkaline batteries) ==  It is legal for residents to discard alkaline batteries in the regular trash.

 

Not so, apparently... From the linked page

 

** Batteries: (1) Do not mix alkaline batteries with lithium or rechargeable batteries. (2) There are special handling requirements for lithium and rechargeable batteries, see Safety and Packaging Requirements. (3) It is legal for residents to discard alkaline batteries in the regular trash.

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