Up until recently, whenever it came time to dispose of a used battery, I would simply put it in an ever-growing plastic bag in my pantry that was filled with other spent batteries. This bag has traveled with me for awhile now, even when I have moved apartments. You see, I tend to hoard things that I don't know how to dispose of correctly. I was recently forced to come to terms with my hoarded collection of used up batteries when I became a member of the "green" committee within my department. One of the jobs of this committee was to continue a battery recycling program that had fallen away when the administrator in charge of it retired. We had a brimming collection pail filled with used batteries and it became my job to recycle them. It turns out that this job was much more difficult that I anticipated. I was really frustrated with the lack of useful information on the topic so I thought I would share what I managed to scrounge up.
*It is really hard to find a way to recycle alkaline batteries, which made up the majority of the batteries that the department had collected. I think the availability of recycling options for alkaline batteries really varies by city. In my city, there was only one location in the whole city that would take alkaline batteries.
-alkaline batteries are non-rechargeable batteries and they are the typical batteries that you probably use in your remote, etc.
*There is only one place that you can recycle alkaline batteries in Saint Louis. You can bring them to the museum store at the Old Courthouse downtown (http://www.jnpa.com/302/Battery_Recycling.htm).
-They do not accept corroded batteries (bad news for me, because many of the batteries I had were corroded!)
-The batteries must have their positive end taped over (bad news for me, because I had sooo many batteries to tape!)
*Many other locations will recycle rechargeable batteries such as Best Buy. This is because rechargeable batteries contain mercury and MUST be recycled. I believe it is against the law to dispose of them in the regular trash.
*There are differing opinions on the utility of recycling alkaline batteries. You can see both sides of the argument here: http://willtaft.com/136/environment/there-may-be-no-need-to-recycle-alkaline-batteries
and here: http://willtaft.com/170/environment/yes-we-do-need-to-recycle-alkaline-batteries. These posts are by the same blogger; evidently he changed his opinion after the first posting.
*I consulted our Office of Sustainability in hopes that they offered battery recycling on campus. They informed me that they do provide recycling pick up for rechargeable batteries but they do not recommend recycling of alkaline batteries. Wait... what? That's right, they stated that they believe there is limited to no benefit to recycling alkaline batteries. Here are some reasons they gave:
-it takes more energy to recycle the batteries than it does to create a new one, resulting in a net energy loss.
-it is very expensive which means that if you want to recycle them, you have to pay for it.
-the materials that can be extracted from the battery for reuse are very minimal
-the battery may travel great distances to a recycling facility which increases the energy used in the process.
*You can pay to recycle alkaline batteries through companies such as: iRecycle (http://www.batteryrecycling.com/new+iRecycle+kits). I tried out one of their kits during my desperate time of trying to recycle my battery stash and it was about $25 for a pretty small box that was filled very quickly.
To conclude, it is still unclear to me what the best option is for trying to recycle nonrechargeable batteries from an environmental standpoint. I ended up doing a combination of bringing some batteries to the Old Courthouse and mailing the rest in via the iRecycle kit. Even though I trusted the opinion of the people from the Office of Sustainability, it still felt really wrong to me to just toss the batteries in the trash. Maybe its all a part of some imagined control that I want to believe I have and maybe it just made me feel better to believe I was recycling the batteries to some benefit. I think a part of it is that if I feel like I made some effort that must be better than simply throwing something in the trash which takes so little effort and thought. However, its important to consider whether this is actually true. I could be wasting time and effort that could be spent on other items that are more beneficial to recycle. I think the bottom line is that the best option may be to switch to rechargeable batteries but that these MUST be recycled. As for those who (like me) have stashes of nonrechargeable batteries, I would recommend researching what is available in your city and weighing the pros and cons of recycling. Ultimately, there is no perfect option and that is something we all have to come to terms with.
