Our family must throw away 50 AA,C,D and 9 volt batteries every year. the government also tells us to change out the batteries in the smoke detectors every six months. Are these just supposed to go into the trash? That is what I was told by Batteries Plus, supposedly a battery recycler in Anchorage.
City Hall used to collect used dry cells and they still may. Any idea what they do with them?
The Hiland Dump will allow you to dispose of them there for a fee, or free if you have every person who tried to recycle a battery fill out a form. Instead of making it easy for folks to keep these things out of the waste stream they encourage dumping them in the trash.
Any ideas?
12 February 10, 2010 - 3:27pm | alisonrein
recycle dry cell batteries
none of the comments I read have anything to do with this topic! Can someone delete them? is there any place to recycle AA, C, D batteries around here?
flag this »1 May 3, 2008 - 2:22pm | recycle
More on Batteries
There is a big difference between the rechargeable types of batteries and the typical "household" alkaline battery in terms of the toxicity of the product. Over the years, alkaline batteries have been reformulated to be much less toxic than they were just ten years ago.
Today's standard household batteries—the AA's, AAA's, C's, D's, and 9-volts that you pick up at the supermarket —have been re-engineered, making them safe to dispose of with your normal trash.
There is one caveat regarding tossing dead household batteries in the trash. If you find old batteries in your house that might have been manufactured before 1997—that is, prior to passage of the Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act of 1996," which began the phase-out of mercury-based household batteries—then they likely contain mercury, should be considered toxic waste, and should be either properly recycled or disposed of at a local household hazardous waste center. To find these centers, visit www.muni.org/sws.
With that said, you also can take your alkaline batteries to Total Reclaim and they will recycle them. Or drop them into one of the collection boxes at City Hall.
Other types of batteries, like button batteries and rechargeables, should definitely be recycled as they do contain toxic materials like silver, zinc, and mercury. Check the yellow pages for the handful of battery recyclers that will accept these types of batteries, such as Battery Specialists and Batteries Plus.
When making battery purchasing decisions, consider if you're using more than a dozen or so disposable batteries per year. If so, you can probably save a lot of money by going to rechargeables.
One final thought, provided by my coworker and fellow recycling coordinator -- If you have kids, you know they usually come with toys and games operated by batteries. You can run a lot of these gadgets for short periods of time using partially used alkaline batteries that have been retired from more vital uses such as smoke detectors and emergency flashlights. If you switch out batteries in these devices on a regular basis, the batteries may not be completely out of juice. Keep them stored separately and let the kids use them in their toy trucks, games and other gizmos until they are fully discharged and can be disposed or recycled.
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