Battery Recycling and Disposal Guide for Households

Battery Recycling and Disposal Guide for Households

If you are having a difficult time finding out what to do with used batteries and where you can take them to be recycled or safely treated and disposed, then you should find a solution here on this page. Whether you have a AAA, AA, C, D, watch, button, hearing aid or car battery,Hp laptop battery, there is a solution. Use the table of contents to jump ahead to the summary table if you are not interested in the background information.

Environmental hazards of household batteries

Regulations

Types of batteries
Omnibook XT1000, Omnibook XT1500
F2019, F2019A, F2019B
Battery facts and statistics

What you can do

Where to recycle rechargeable batteries (Nickel-Cadmium NiCd, Metal Anhydride, Lithium, etc.) Where to recycle batteries in California



Summary table,Omnibook XT1000, (the most useful part of this page)

Environmental Hazards of Batteries

People are using more and more household batteries. The average person owns about two button batteries, ten normal (A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9V, etc.) batteries, and throws out about eight household batteries per year. About three billion batteries are sold annually in the U.S. averaging about 32 per family or ten per person. A battery is an electrochemical device with the ability to convert chemical energy to electrical energy to provide power to electronic devices. Batteries contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel, which can contaminate the environment when batteries are improperly disposed of. When incinerated, certain metals might be released into the air or can concentrate in the ash produced by the combustion process.

Batteries may produce the following potential problems ,Omnibook XT1500,or hazards:

Pollute the lakes and streams as the metals vaporize into the air when burned.

Contribute to heavy metals that potentially may leach from solid waste landfills.

Expose the environment and water to lead and acid.

Contain strong corrosive acids.

May cause burns or danger to eyes ,Omnibook XT1000, Omnibook XT1500
F2019, F2019A, F2019Band skin.

In landfills, heavy metals have the potential to leach slowly into soil, groundwater or surface water. Dry cell batteries contribute about 88 percent of the total mercury and 50 percent of the cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream. In the past, batteries accounted for nearly half of the mercury used in the United States and over half of the mercury and cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream. When burned, some heavy metals such as mercury may vaporize and escape into the air,F2019, and cadmium and lead may end up in the ash.

Hazards of Household Batteries

Controversy exists about reclaiming household batteries. Currently, most batteries collected through household battery collection programs are disposed of in hazardous waste landfills. Even stores and chains that have established take-back programs admit that it often ends up in the trash. There are no known recycling facilities in the U.S. that can practically and cost-effectively reclaim all types of household batteries, although facilities exist that reclaim some button batteries. Battery collection programs typically target button and nickel-cadmium batteries, but may collect all household batteries because of the consumers' difficulty in identifying battery types.

This may change now that California has mandated recycling for "dry cell" batteries

Regulations,F2019A,

Many states have regulations in place requiring some form of battery recycling. California mandates recycling for almost all battery types.

The U.S. Congress passed the Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act in 1996 to make it easier for rechargeable battery and product manufacturers to collect and recycle Ni-CD batteries and certain small sealed lead-acid batteries. For these regulated batteries, the act requires the following:

Batteries must be easily removable from consumer products, to make it easier to recover them for recycling.

Battery labels must include the battery chemistry, the "three chasing arrows" symbol, and a phrase indicating that the user must recycle or dispose of the battery properly.
Omnibook XT1000, Omnibook XT1500
F2019, F2019A, F2019B
National uniformity in collection, storage, and transport of certain batteries.

Phase out the use of certain mercury-containing,F2019B, batteries.