subject: Battery Disposal [print this page] The disposal of batteries is akin to the disposal of any non-biodegradable commodities, like disposable diapers, Styrofoam, and PCP loaded insecticides. Humankind has decided we cant live without them, but much to our chagrin, we have finally earned that we cant live with them for every much longer without paying some very serious environmental consequences.
A market driven economy is dependent on continuing demand if it is to survive, and disposable items are essential to continuing demand. If everyone who ever bought a battery for each of his or her appliances never needed to buy another, battery makers would either have to keep inventing new essential appliances, or hope that every person on Earth reproduces tenfold. An expectation of obsolescence is built in to our approach to our possessions. Those which do not wear out we simply replace after a while to enjoy the novelty of their replacements.
Every year over two billion used batteries are disposed into solid waste facilities in the United States. This is an increasing problem, fundamentally due to the extensive development in the field of new technologies that made possible that almost everyone owns at least a wireless electronic device that uses diverse types of batteries. Think of the millions of laptops, digital camcorders, cell phones, wireless hand tools, flash lights, toys, etc. sold in the market just within the recent past years and you'll see the real environmental challenge of disposal and recycling ahead of us.
The current figures show that only 2% of consumer disposable batteries are recycled. Each household uses around 21 batteries per year. So when you figure that if everyone throws out their batteries as waste, then we are heading for a big problem.
When improperly disposed, heavy metals have the potential to leach slowly into soil or groundwater. Batteries contribute over 80 percent of the total mercury and over 50 percent of the cadmium in solid waste streams. When burned, heavy metals like mercury may vaporize and escape into the air.
You should consider using rechargeable batteries in more power intensive devices, depending on the specific use, this may be a better option than using disposable batteries, and it will also bring environmental and financial benefits.
Well, Batteries are made up of all sorts of chemicals, most of them containing heavy metals, which is the main problem concerning the environment. When the batteries are just thrown out and not recycled or disposed of correctly, these harmful chemicals can seep out into the ground as the battery casing gradually erodes over the years lying in waste. This will then eventually contribute to soil and water pollution and will affect wildlife and us.
More and more houses are becoming aware of this problem and have begun to separate used batteries from the general household waste. A lot of local authorities have now begun to collect the used batteries as part of the mixed recycling bags, which encourages families further to put the batteries in the green bag rather than the black. If this is not the case, then in very few, but some, car parks of retail stores, there are banks for you to distribute your used batteries into.
The disposal of batteries which have been exhausted is a prime example of this throw-away mentality. Enough improper disposals of batteries over the past century have occurred that their toxic mercury is now in the food chain, affecting marine life to an unprecedented extent. Many of the fish upon which poorer nations have depended for their survival are no longer safe to eat. Mercury poisoning can lead to severe mental and physical impairment in humans, and even to madness.
It will have to come from educated, environmentally concerned consumers deciding to pay the extra money to buy rechargeable batteries and chargers, or solar powered electronic devices, or at the very lest, extended life disposable batteries. With a concerted effort, they can move enough money the traditional battery to the alternative battery market, and the environment will be the winner.
