This comprehensive guide covers the four main types of household batteries (alkaline, NiMH, lithium-ion, and lead-acid), proper disposal methods, and cost considerations. Key findings: alkaline batteries can legally go in regular trash in most areas due to the 1996 Battery Act removing mercury, while rechargeable batteries require special disposal. The guide includes safety tips for storage, local disposal options, and emerging recycling technologies that may change current recommendations.
Ethican Life℠ has no affiliation with any organizations or companies discussed in this post.
Full Transcript
The Common Battery Dilemma
All right, so if you’re anything like me, you probably have a box or a drawer full of old batteries that you need to get rid of, but you’re not really sure how – whether you can throw them away or if you need to recycle them, or if there’s some other way to dispose of them. And then when it comes to buying new batteries, you’ve got to choose between rechargeables and the single use, and you might have questions about what are better for the environment.
So let me hit the bullet points for you.
Educational Disclaimer: Remember, I’m not a licensed contractor, and this is for educational purposes. Be sure to check your local regulations and manufacturer guidelines before disposing of batteries.
Four Main Types of Household Batteries
First you’ve got four main types of batteries in the household.
Alkaline is the first one, those are your double and triple A’s, C and D batteries and the 9-volts. These are in your remote controls, wall clocks, toys, some flashlights, other portable electronic items.
Second are the nickel metal hydride. These are Ni-MH on the battery, and these are usually the rechargeable versions of the double and triple A batteries. They can also be those button batteries that are in key fobs, hearing aids, small electronic devices like that.
The third one is lithium ion, which of course are in phones and laptops, e-cigarettes. They can also be those button batteries, so there’s small versions of them. And power tools are lithium ion.
And then the fourth ones are lead acid batteries, and these are just generally your car and your motorcycle batteries. And they could also be used in some backup battery situations, like maybe for a sump pump.
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) Symbol
You really don’t need to know exactly what kind of battery it is, if you look on it and you see the trash can with the cross through it – [the WEEE symbol] – if you see this, it’s because this device has a battery in it, or the battery itself, should not be thrown in the trash. This is the kind that have to be disposed of properly, because they contain metals and harmful chemicals that if you dispose of them improperly and put them in the trash, they can get into the soil or the groundwater, and that will disrupt ecosystems and contaminate drinking water.
Safe Storage Before Disposal
So, you should always properly dispose of those batteries. And if you’re thinking that it takes too much effort to figure that out – figure out where it goes – believe me, I understand. This is why I put all my batteries in a box and collect them until it’s time to dispose of them all at once, where I can find a proper place to dispose of them.
And I’m going to come back to the alkaline batteries in a minute because those can go in the trash.
But first for rechargeable batteries or anything with that crossed out trash symbol on it, you should cover the terminal ends with tape before storing them together, because that’ll prevent the terminals from touching other batteries or metal and creating sparks that could cause a fire while they’re in storage.
Finding Disposal Locations
According to Call2Recycle.org a lot of electronic stores hardware, big box stores will take rechargeable batteries to recycle them. But on this one, I’d say call ahead first because I’ve had mixed results.
You can find drop off locations at Call2Recycle.org. They have disposal and recycling for all kinds of hazardous household items. And all you have to do is go there, put in your zip code and select the type of household item that are categorized that you want to get rid of, including batteries and it will give you the local options for where and when to go along with contact information usually for those facilities so that you can dispose of those items properly. So that’s what I’ll end up doing with my box of batteries. I need to find out where I can go locally.
The Alkaline Battery Exception
Something that might surprise you about alkaline batteries, which I found out as part of the research is according to the EPA guidelines, you can throw those in the garbage. And this was kind of created a lot of cognitive dissonance for me because I always thought, you should always try to recycle them. “They appear to be made of metal. Why can’t you recycle them?”
Well, it turns out that in most communities – except say, California, that requires special handling still – but in most communities you can throw them in the trash because since the 1996 Battery Act was enacted, the mercury from these batteries was removed, so you didn’t have to recycle them or do anything special with them anymore. You could put them right in the trash.
The contents of alkaline batteries contain materials that are relatively common and a lot less toxic than what’s in rechargeable batteries.
The Environmental Impact of Alkaline Recycling
But research at NEMA.org shows that there is actually a net negative effect or a net environmental burden when you try to recycle these batteries – from the collection, the transportation, and then the amount of energy that it takes to extract the raw materials back out of alkaline batteries – you end up with less material than the energy you put in to get it out.
So it’s a net environmental burden to try to recycle these. There are environmentalists who say that you should still recycle them anyway, but studies at MIT have come to the same conclusion: that it’s probably better to just throw them away, at least for the time being.
Cost of Collection Programs
If you still want to recycle them though, or if you want to recycle them along with your other batteries that you have, there are other options, but they do come at a cost to recycle them.
So programs like Call2Recycle offer collection boxes. It’s 20 to 50 pounds of batteries, but they run between $80 and $110 according to recent pricing from Call2Recycle and other reviews in order to collect up and transport the batteries.
Better than that though, is most communities will have a once or twice a year event where you can come and bring your household hazardous waste items, or you can check where to go locally if you don’t have one of those programs or if it’s in between the two times a year cycle.
Emerging Technologies
I am tracking some really innovative companies that may turn all of this advice on its head because they’re finding ways to extract, a very high percentage of raw materials from batteries that are being recycled, both lithium ion and other types.
And there are companies that are developing brand new batteries that don’t use any of those raw materials in their battery.
So those companies are still in research and development or early expansion, so I will keep an eye on those and let you know as I find out more.
Final Thoughts
But for right now, the steps that I’ve provided are the directionally correct ways to go.
If living an Ethican Life is important to you as it is to me, please make the effort to dispose of batteries properly and keep those contaminants out of the ground.
And, consider rechargeable batteries for your regular household use as long as you use them for their full lifecycle and then dispose of them properly. Otherwise, you’re doing more harm than good with the rechargeable battery.
So, lower the environmental impact of using portable electronic devices by buying and disposing your batteries in a thoughtful manner.
Resources
1996 Battery Act (EPA): https://www.epa.gov/mercury/mercury-batteries
EPA Household Battery Guidelines: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-household-batteries
EPA Lithium-Ion Battery Information: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-lithium-ion-batteries
Call2Recycle Locator: https://call2recycle.org/locator
State-Specific Battery Laws: https://call2recycle.org/battery-laws/
Call2Recycle Collection Boxes: https://www.call2recycle.org/store/
NEMA Battery Recycling Research: https://www.nema.org/docs/default-source/products-document-library/Life-Cycle-Analysis-of-Alkaline-Battery-Recycling—2018.pdf
MIT: https://www.epbaeurope.net/assets/resources/NEMA_alkalinelca2011.pdf
NCBI Environmental Impact Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5920515/
WEEE: https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/product-requirements/labels-markings/weee-label/index_en.htm
Environmentalist Source: https://becauseturtleseatplasticbags.com/the-truth-about-recycling-batteries/