9 ms·

It’s sad that we (barely) care more about recycling soda cans than we do batteries. If throwing batteries in the regular trash is such a costly thing why on Ear

by User23 3y ago

It’s sad that we (barely) care more about recycling soda cans than we do batteries. If throwing batteries in the regular trash is such a costly thing why on Earth don’t we collect a deposit and offer deposit return to anyone who turns them in?

helph67 3y ago
In Oz there are retailers who provide battery recycling services... https://au.news.yahoo.com/bunnings-ikea-aldi-recycling-old-household-goods-free-220543497.html https://au.news.yahoo.com/bunnings-ikea-aldi-recycling-old-h...
rubicon33 3y ago
I've got an even better question: Given how ubiquitous and common battery usage is, why on earth is it SO DIFFICULT TO RECYCLE THEM? My garbage is collected once a week, green waste too, recycling every other week, but regular use stuff like batteries is NEVER picked up I have to take it somewhere. I'm sorry but if we actually cared about preventing these things from making it into landfills, we'd make it as easy as possible for people to recycle them.
- creato 3y ago
  I can't see battery pickup working except as a once per year kind of thing. And around me, there is a once per year electronics recycling pickup in my neighborhood. Also, "take it somewhere" isn't that bad when "somewhere" is home depot, which has a battery disposal bin.
  - shrimp_emoji 3y ago
    I would toss it in the trash. I don't want to go to Home Depot. Lol There are only two ways to prevent this: 1. The waste management system should put everything on a big conveyor belt and filter out toxic/dangerous waste so that the consumer doesn't have to care about special handling. 2. Those materials should be outlawed from being used in consumer tech.
  - rubicon33 3y ago
    > I can't see battery pickup working except as a once per year kind of thing. Why not? > Also, "take it somewhere" isn't that bad when "somewhere" is home depot, which has a battery disposal bin. I think you underestimate how lazy people are. Lets not leave the health and safety of our landfills up to something as risky as human laziness.
    - ethbr1 3y ago
      Agreed. If we're serious about this, mandatory bi-yearly pickup of hazardous material (batteries, paint, solvents, etc), with awareness campaigns seems reasonable. Push it down as a requirement on garbage companies and then monitor it through them.
    - Aurornis 3y ago
      > Why not? Because weekly pickup is expensive to run. In most places you pay for your weekly pickup one way or another. There’s no way people are going to vote for or approve an additional weekly pickup charge for something they dispose of very infrequently. There are many stores with battery drop offs. If you really want to make a dent, put the battery recycling drop offs in grocery stores and put signage around it. Routine pickup would be more hassle: You’d need to figure out the bins, the pickup method, the scheduling, etc. It’s really terrible for anything that isn’t both large and steady, like your waste bin.
      - mcronce 3y ago
        Many places already have weekly/biweekly pickup for single-stream glass/plastic/paper/aluminum recycling - is there any fundamental reason that batteries couldn't be added to the stream?
        coryrc 3y ago
        They leak nasty stuff. Every worker would need to be wearing more protective clothing and respirators.
        3y ago
  - arwineap 3y ago
    Keep in mind that home depot only accepts RECHARGEABLE cells, not your standard alkaline cells that accounts for most of people's disposal needs
    - ahoka 3y ago
      Because alkaline batteries are (AFAIK) safe to throw away.
      - Ringz 3y ago
        But they should be recycled.
    - RecycledEle 3y ago
      My home depot sells alkaline batteries.
  - fy20 3y ago
    Where I am in Europe, a lot of supermarkets have a bin that can take light bulbs, batteries and small electronics (no bigger than a toaster). I believe this is based on an EU regulation that the seller has to accept electronic goods for recycling at end of life.
  - BrandonMarc 3y ago
    I've tried that. One by one the stores near me stopped accepting batteries. Even the municipal recycling center, where I sometimes take bags full of paper or plastic bottles, refuses to take batteries. The local Batteries+Bulbs store is the only place left near me. For how long? It should be FAR far easier to do.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- gosub100 3y ago
  best buy has a very liberal electronics recycling program. do you live near one?
  - ta988 3y ago
    As in they take most things even if you don't buy anything?
- Aurornis 3y ago
  Weekly pickup is only appropriate for things that need to be picked up weekly. Many retail stores accept lithium batteries for recycling. You might already be going to a store every few weeks or months that accepts them.
- PopAlongKid 3y ago
  The waste/recycling service where I live advises that we can put old batteries in a ziploc baggie on top of our recycling bin, which is picked up weekly. The three bins we have (landfill, organics/compost, and recycling) are picked up via a truck with a grabber arm, so that the driver never has to leave the driver's seat. The last time I left some out, I could swear I saw the driver just pick up the recycle bin with the baggie of batteries on top and dump it in with all the rest of the recycling (so why put the baggie on top?). For the 2-3 times a year I do this, it would only take about 30 seconds to hop out and grab the baggie by hand to store it separately. Maybe they sort it out at the recycling facility, but I've also been told that almost all our recycling ends up in the landfill anyway.
  - ta988 3y ago
    In some areas a non negligible part of recycling goes to incineration because incinerators can't work without enough fuel and cardboard, paper and plastics are necessary. And in some other places any contaminated recycling (oil, food residues etc) is redirected to landfill/incinerators.
- Ferret7446 3y ago
  It's difficult to recycle batteries because it's difficult to recycle them. They're complicated chemical containers that can be volatile/contain a lot of energy. Some things are easier to recycle and some are harder. Batteries are pretty close to the bottom of the list. (This is also why "electricity is more environmentally friendly than burning fuel" is not necessarily true).
- elijah_moham 3y ago
  [dead]
coldfoundry 3y ago
It really makes me think about the increase in use of disposable vapes, the younger demographic that uses them, and how they are even labelled as “disposable” in the first place. I know people who go through one a day and once they are done, they just dispose of them in their garbage can as they think they can simply be disposed of. I think a reward system would be the only way to incentivize proper recycling of these sadly.
- ta988 3y ago
  Yes some cities are littered with these. Around cannabis dispensaries where they are often given as gifts it is even worse.
Barrin92 3y ago
> why on Earth don’t we collect a deposit and offer deposit return to anyone who turns them in? that's exactly how it works in Germany. By law batteries must not go into household trash and retailers are required to take back used ones free of charge. https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/waste-resources/product-stewardship-waste-management/batteries https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/waste-resources/pro...
pests 3y ago
We kind of do. Almost any larger battery has a resale value and you could reuse instead of recycle. Around my area in Metro Detroit there are battery stores all over that will buy used batteries. It might be only a dollar for some random laptop battery while car batteries etc are basically the core price of $50-$60 per. At the very least, there is value in the raw metals as scrap.
throwup238 3y ago
> It’s sad that we (barely) care more about recycling soda cans than we do batteries Why is that sad? It takes more energy to extract aluminum from bauxite with electrolysis than it does to recycle used aluminum. Same with steel. Depending on the source, 30-50% of aluminum and steel made in the US is from recycled stock.

by User23 3y ago

helph67 3y ago

In Oz there are retailers who provide battery recycling services... https://au.news.yahoo.com/bunnings-ikea-aldi-recycling-old-household-goods-free-220543497.html https://au.news.yahoo.com/bunnings-ikea-aldi-recycling-old-h...

rubicon33 3y ago

I've got an even better question: Given how ubiquitous and common battery usage is, why on earth is it SO DIFFICULT TO RECYCLE THEM? My garbage is collected once a week, green waste too, recycling every other week, but regular use stuff like batteries is NEVER picked up I have to take it somewhere. I'm sorry but if we actually cared about preventing these things from making it into landfills, we'd make it as easy as possible for people to recycle them.

creato 3y ago
I can't see battery pickup working except as a once per year kind of thing. And around me, there is a once per year electronics recycling pickup in my neighborhood. Also, "take it somewhere" isn't that bad when "somewhere" is home depot, which has a battery disposal bin.
- shrimp_emoji 3y ago
  I would toss it in the trash. I don't want to go to Home Depot. Lol There are only two ways to prevent this: 1. The waste management system should put everything on a big conveyor belt and filter out toxic/dangerous waste so that the consumer doesn't have to care about special handling. 2. Those materials should be outlawed from being used in consumer tech.
- rubicon33 3y ago
  > I can't see battery pickup working except as a once per year kind of thing. Why not? > Also, "take it somewhere" isn't that bad when "somewhere" is home depot, which has a battery disposal bin. I think you underestimate how lazy people are. Lets not leave the health and safety of our landfills up to something as risky as human laziness.
  - ethbr1 3y ago
    Agreed. If we're serious about this, mandatory bi-yearly pickup of hazardous material (batteries, paint, solvents, etc), with awareness campaigns seems reasonable. Push it down as a requirement on garbage companies and then monitor it through them.
  - Aurornis 3y ago
    > Why not? Because weekly pickup is expensive to run. In most places you pay for your weekly pickup one way or another. There’s no way people are going to vote for or approve an additional weekly pickup charge for something they dispose of very infrequently. There are many stores with battery drop offs. If you really want to make a dent, put the battery recycling drop offs in grocery stores and put signage around it. Routine pickup would be more hassle: You’d need to figure out the bins, the pickup method, the scheduling, etc. It’s really terrible for anything that isn’t both large and steady, like your waste bin.
    - mcronce 3y ago
      Many places already have weekly/biweekly pickup for single-stream glass/plastic/paper/aluminum recycling - is there any fundamental reason that batteries couldn't be added to the stream?
      - coryrc 3y ago
        They leak nasty stuff. Every worker would need to be wearing more protective clothing and respirators.
        3y ago
- arwineap 3y ago
  Keep in mind that home depot only accepts RECHARGEABLE cells, not your standard alkaline cells that accounts for most of people's disposal needs
  - ahoka 3y ago
    Because alkaline batteries are (AFAIK) safe to throw away.
    - Ringz 3y ago
      But they should be recycled.
  - RecycledEle 3y ago
    My home depot sells alkaline batteries.
- fy20 3y ago
  Where I am in Europe, a lot of supermarkets have a bin that can take light bulbs, batteries and small electronics (no bigger than a toaster). I believe this is based on an EU regulation that the seller has to accept electronic goods for recycling at end of life.
- BrandonMarc 3y ago
  I've tried that. One by one the stores near me stopped accepting batteries. Even the municipal recycling center, where I sometimes take bags full of paper or plastic bottles, refuses to take batteries. The local Batteries+Bulbs store is the only place left near me. For how long? It should be FAR far easier to do.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
gosub100 3y ago
best buy has a very liberal electronics recycling program. do you live near one?
- ta988 3y ago
  As in they take most things even if you don't buy anything?
Aurornis 3y ago
Weekly pickup is only appropriate for things that need to be picked up weekly. Many retail stores accept lithium batteries for recycling. You might already be going to a store every few weeks or months that accepts them.
PopAlongKid 3y ago
The waste/recycling service where I live advises that we can put old batteries in a ziploc baggie on top of our recycling bin, which is picked up weekly. The three bins we have (landfill, organics/compost, and recycling) are picked up via a truck with a grabber arm, so that the driver never has to leave the driver's seat. The last time I left some out, I could swear I saw the driver just pick up the recycle bin with the baggie of batteries on top and dump it in with all the rest of the recycling (so why put the baggie on top?). For the 2-3 times a year I do this, it would only take about 30 seconds to hop out and grab the baggie by hand to store it separately. Maybe they sort it out at the recycling facility, but I've also been told that almost all our recycling ends up in the landfill anyway.
- ta988 3y ago
  In some areas a non negligible part of recycling goes to incineration because incinerators can't work without enough fuel and cardboard, paper and plastics are necessary. And in some other places any contaminated recycling (oil, food residues etc) is redirected to landfill/incinerators.
Ferret7446 3y ago
It's difficult to recycle batteries because it's difficult to recycle them. They're complicated chemical containers that can be volatile/contain a lot of energy. Some things are easier to recycle and some are harder. Batteries are pretty close to the bottom of the list. (This is also why "electricity is more environmentally friendly than burning fuel" is not necessarily true).
elijah_moham 3y ago
[dead]

coldfoundry 3y ago

It really makes me think about the increase in use of disposable vapes, the younger demographic that uses them, and how they are even labelled as “disposable” in the first place. I know people who go through one a day and once they are done, they just dispose of them in their garbage can as they think they can simply be disposed of. I think a reward system would be the only way to incentivize proper recycling of these sadly.

ta988 3y ago
Yes some cities are littered with these. Around cannabis dispensaries where they are often given as gifts it is even worse.

Barrin92 3y ago

> why on Earth don’t we collect a deposit and offer deposit return to anyone who turns them in? that's exactly how it works in Germany. By law batteries must not go into household trash and retailers are required to take back used ones free of charge. https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/waste-resources/product-stewardship-waste-management/batteries https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/waste-resources/pro...

pests 3y ago

We kind of do. Almost any larger battery has a resale value and you could reuse instead of recycle. Around my area in Metro Detroit there are battery stores all over that will buy used batteries. It might be only a dollar for some random laptop battery while car batteries etc are basically the core price of $50-$60 per. At the very least, there is value in the raw metals as scrap.

throwup238 3y ago

> It’s sad that we (barely) care more about recycling soda cans than we do batteries Why is that sad? It takes more energy to extract aluminum from bauxite with electrolysis than it does to recycle used aluminum. Same with steel. Depending on the source, 30-50% of aluminum and steel made in the US is from recycled stock.