How To Recycle Old Batteries
Illegal To Toss Them In Trash
Written and Produced by Jennifer Olney
September 7, 2006
Next time you’re about to toss a battery in the trash, think again. Earlier this year, California became the first state in the nation to make it illegal to throw away household batteries. So what do you do with your batteries instead? That’s now a multi-million dollar problem that’s still waiting for a convenient solution.
Californians will use almost 600 million batteries this year and when we’re done with them, we often just toss them in the garbage, and that is against the law. The California Department of Toxic Subtances Control has determined batteries are hazardous waste — too dangerous to be put in a landfill.
Gloria Chan, San Francisco Dept. of Environment: “Toxic substances can chemically react and leach into the ground water, leach into our streams and lakes, and polluting our air.”
The battery industry fought the ruling.
Mark Kohorst, National Electrical Manufacturers Assn.: “There’s no evidence that these batteries provide any hazard to public health or the environment when disposed in landfills.”
But the state does not agree, and in February it became illegal to throw away batteries. We’re talking about common household batteries — the kind you use everyday.
The problem is, what do you do with them if you can’t toss them in the trash?
Marie Kahn, Sustainable Moraga: “There were no public agencies who had any plan in place to collect batteries.”
Marie Kahn lives in Moraga in Contra Costa County. After the new rule went into effect, she and other members of an environmental group volunteered to collect batteries to be recycled. Several stores let them put out collection bins.
Marie Kahn: “We were overwhelmed as of the second day by the quantities we were getting. We had no idea that such a small town used so many batteries.”
To make matters worse, the only place to take the batteries was the Household Hazardous Waste Collection facility in Martinez — a 35-mile roundtrip from Moraga.
Marie Kahn: “We realized that this was no job for amateurs and we began a campaign to try to get a public agency to pick them up.”
The Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority has now agreed to take over the battery pick-up at stores next month.
Lois Courchaine, Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority: “We’ve set aside $167,000 to manage the batteries for a year.”
The program is similar to one already operating in San Francisco where about a hundred stores now collect batteries. The city picks them up, sorts them and sends them off for recycling.
In Palo Alto, batteries are part of a curbside pick up. Residents just put them in a plastic bag on top of their regular recycling bin. But in most Bay Area communities, your only option is to take your batteries to a household hazardous waste site. The trouble is, most people aren’t doing that.
Lois Courchaine: “Unless a recycling program is convenient, then they are gonna still throw away their batteries. They are tiny little items. It’s really easy to sneak them in.”
Mark Murray, Californians Against Waste: “It is a big problem. We’ve got over 34,000 tons of household batteries — get disposed in California’s trash every year. That’s a lot of hazardous material.”
Mark Murray is with Californians Against Waste. He believes retailers and manufacturers should take responsibility for recycling household batteries, like they already do with rechargeable batteries. But the battery industry says it just doesn’t pay to recycle alkaline batteries.
Mark Kohorst: “The technologies that do exist are very resource intensive, energy intensive, very costly and all of that activity, the transportation, the collection, has environmental consequences.”
Despite battery industry protests, the state says recycling is worth it and many local officials agree. The regulation is not likely to go away.
Gloria Chan: “It’s not always cost effective to do the right thing. But in the long term, for our environment, and for the health of the public, it’s gonna be worth it.”
At this point, there are no battery police who will be checking your trash. The state says it will go after big offenders. But for the most part, officials are simply hoping you will care enough about the environment to make the extra effort to recycle your batteries.
Related links:
Information about where you can recycle batteries in your community: