Proper Battery Disposal: When to Recycle
Posted by Kyley Eagleson on Fri, Jan 27, 2012 @ 10:26 AM
While the technology behind batteries is improving, and as such lessening the severity of the impact of improper disposal, it is still important to dispose of your dead batteries in the proper manner.
Firstly, for the sake of personal safety, it is important to know that you should never dispose of batteries in a fire, because they are an explosion risk, you should remove dead batteries from equipment immediately, because leaving worn-out batteries in items can lead to corrosion, and that you should never attempt to recharge a battery unless it is specifically labeled as rechargeable.
According to the Duracell website, normal alkaline batteries can, in most cases, be thrown out with your household trash; however, we recommend that you recycle them whenever possible because although the mercury has been removed from most commercial alkaline batteries for sale now, there are still toxins in them that should not be put into the environment.
If you do choose to throw your used batteries away, it is important that you do so in small numbers. Even dead batteries are often times not completely drained, because of this, throwing away large amounts of batteries together can be dangerous. A large group of mostly used batteries can work together to produce a charge that is damaging to the environment.
Lastly, due to the chemicals in battery types other than alkaline, you should make sure to recycle rechargeable, lithium, lithium ion, and zinc air batteries. There are several companies that can help you recycle your batteries and a quick internet search will provide you with plenty of options including the Heritage Lifecycle kits!
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