Batteries Not Included

October 31, 2007

The Show

Batteries can be full of nasty stuff. The good news is they're recyclable. The bad news is everybody just throws them in the garbage

One of the side effects of a boom in neat little electronic gadgets is a boom in battery sales. This year, Canadians will buy almost 550 million of them.

Rechargeable batteries are loaded with heavy metals. Non-rechargeable alkaline ones contain potassium hydroxide, a potent corrosive. The button cells used in hearing aids and watches have mercury in them. Long story short, there is no such thing as a battery that is friendly on the inside.

The U.S. government realized that back in the early 1990s, when it began talking about legislation to require battery manufacturers to take more responsibility for the most toxic of the dead ones. The industry responded by voluntarily launching recycling programs, both there and here in Canada.

That much sounds like good news. But the only batteries the industry is actually taking back for recycling are the rechargeable ones. As Erica Johnson reports, the others, which make up more than 90% of all batteries sold in this country, mostly end up in landfills.

October 31, 2007
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A letter from Wayne Elliot, founder of Raw Materials Company

(Raw Materials Company recycled all the batteries collected in the Port Perry blitz, including the non-rechargeable ones)

Since Raw Materials Company was founded almost 18 years ago, approx 3 million tons of consumer, or "household" batteries have been buried in North America. Unfortunately, the huge majority of these small, innocent looking, corrosive, toxic metal batteries, continue to be landfilled as in the past, together with the balance of household trash, in our unprotected municipal landfills. Mixed consumer batteries contain metals including zinc, cadmium, lead, mercury & lithium. These "dry cell" batteries also contain corrosive electrolytes.

There are more than 250,000 tons of consumer batteries produced annually for North American consumption alone (10 large ships, or 9000 transport trucks loaded to capacity). Millions of tons are buried already & greater quantities are buried each year, in this age of high tech devices & electronics. As the metal carcasses are breached over time, the contents are set free into our environment, at a steadily increased pace & tonnage.

Although most batteries have greatly reduced mercury content today (compared to those mfg. in the past), many tons are still used. Mercury remains the most toxic metal to humans & many other species on earth.

Cadmium, (the earth's second most toxic metal to humans), continues to be used in many millions of devices today, powered by nickel cadmium batteries. Collection efforts to date fail to capture the majority of these waste batteries as well.

Collection presents some challenge, as consumer waste batteries are generated at the rate of less than 2 pounds, per household per year. Collection has been the favored excuse in the past, to ignore the problem.

Blue box programs to date have not been interested, as most of the battery cells are of no resale value. Space on collection trucks is another reason given for not collecting spent batteries via these programs. Notwithstanding, a small pail would likely suffice for each days collection of household batteries. We have long believed the blue box program could be a very efficient collection method. The average household would produce a small sandwich bag of battery cells approx twice each year.

It seems unreasonable, we put forth the effort to recycle valuable items (ie; aluminum cans, paper, glass), wisely sustaining natural resources & conserving energy, but continue to fail to protect ourselves from deadly toxins right in our communities, at local landfill sites.

Once collected, the miscellaneous battery types can be sorted & safely recycled, for approx. $2.00 per HOUSEHOLD per YEAR.

It remains our belief Canadians would be willing to pay $2.00 to $3.00 total cost, per household each year, knowing thousands of tons of corrosive metals are not leaching through to the groundwater, for future generations to suffer.

Humans cannot sustain themselves by eating these batteries, so why do we continue to accept that our children & grandchildren consume them in future?

As with other destructive behavior we have adopted (ie; overfishing, clear cutting forests, emissions causing global warming, etc), nature is unable to keep up & maintain our environment as it is meant to be, nor can it deal with concentrated pockets of corrosive toxins across the country & around the world.

Decisive action is long overdue & while we continue to wrangle over the issues, approx 600 tons of consumer batteries are landfilled in North America each and every day.


Wayne Elliott
Founder
Raw Materials Company
Div./ International Marine Salvage Inc.
Port Colborne, Canada.

October 31, 2007
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Batteries credits

"Batteries Not Included"

Producer
Anne Wright-Howard

Research
Tiffany Foxcroft

Editor
Robert Megna

Camera
Neith Macdonald
Ed Middleton
Mark Bochsler
Charlotte Gentis

Sound
Karndeep Jassal

October 31, 2007
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What to do with the dead ones

1. Buy Rechargeable batteries. They last longer and can be recycled.
Rechargeable Batteries are used in many portable devices, including cell phones, iPods, laptop computers, electric toothbrushes, power tools and many others. You can also find them sold separately for use in any household item.

2. Don’t throw any batteries in the garbage.
Take non-rechargeable batteries to your local hazardous waste depot site. Alkaline batteries contain potassium hydroxide, which is corrosive. Handle corroded batteries carefully; potassium hydroxide can burn if exposed to wet skin.

3. Recycle your rechargeable batteries.
Rechargeable batteries can contain highly-toxic cadmium, nickel and lead. Call the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation at 1-888-224-9764 to find out where to take them.

4. Call your mayor. Encourage your local municipality to recycle all batteries.
In California a law prohibiting residents from throwing batteries in the trash came into effect in February 2006. California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control determined that, due to their hazardous content, the disposal of all household batteries should be prohibited. The same year the European Union passed a directive requiring that all member states collect and recycle used batteries. A collection rate of at least 25% must be reached by 2012. This law comes into effect in September 2008.

5. Organize your own battery blitz.
Port Perry and the surrounding township of Scugog collected 29,455 batteries in just two weeks. Try to top that!

October 30, 2007
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Links to more information

People and organizations featured in the show:


The Consumer Life section on cbc.ca has an in-depth look at the chemistry of batteries.

Government resources :
(Federal)
  • Environment Canada's Canadian Consumer Battery Baseline Study offers a comprehensive guide to batteries and all the issues around their disposal. This report delves deeply into chemistry, metallurgy, sales trends, and the environmental impact of batteries in the garbage.

These two charts are taken from the report. They illustrate current annual sales and recycling rates for batteries in Canada. (Click on a thumbnail for the full-size table)



Ontario:
Europe:
California:
Other California resources:

October 30, 2007
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