Alkaline batteries may contain mercury, although the mercury content has been reduced considerably over the years.  Some jurisdictions allow small alkaline batteries in household waste, but many areas classify them as hazardous waste and prohibit landfill disposal.  Many areas have firms that provide specialized recycling for these batteries at a nominal charge.

Peter Crownfield
Campus Sustainability Initiative
Alliance for Sustainable Communities-Lehigh Valley
Bethlehem, PA  
<www.sustainlv.org>
 

We've been looking at recycling for aklaline batteries but have been unable to find any programs that charge a nominal fee... can you provide any sources?  All the programs we have looked at that have solid best management practices throughout their entire process are not at all cost-effective. 

Thanks for any information you can provide!

Merry Rankin

Director of Sustainability, Iowa State University

livegreen.iastate.edu

 Posted on behalf of Rob Gogan, Harvard Campus Recycling & Waste Services

I think it is incumbent on us to recover not only alkaline batteries, but any other toxic, reusable or recyclable e-wastes generated by our campuses. We like the looks of the Battery Solutions tubes, but they are expensive and do not meet our EH & S requirement that a battery container needs to survive a knock-down without spilling anything out. I am envious of other campuses where alkaline battery recycling seems to be free. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for us. Here’s how we do it.

On our campus, we use 5-gallon buckets to collect batteries and other small e-wastes. We have formed partnerships with the Institution Recycling Network, Semi-New Computers, and the LABBB Special Needs Collaborative to make it possible for us not only to recycle lithium and rechargeable batteries we are legally mandated to recycle, but also any other e-waste or e-media items, large or small. I would urge anyone in the IRN’s service area to contact them for e-waste management (as well as dozens of other services nobody else does half as well). Our battery recycling program is really the same enterprise as our e-waste program, so I will describe that too.

Large-scale e-waste and e-media (“you need two hands to hold them”) go into our blue 18-bushel wheeled hampers. This includes computers, TV’s, projectors, audio equipment and all peripheral accessories. Semi-New Computers, with the help of LABBB, picks through these for Pentium4 or newer PC’s which are refurbished on our campus and re-sold to non-profits. The Semi-New rejects go to our weekly Surplus Distribution, where tinkerers and scrappers take away any electronics of value for reuse or recycling. The remainder (about half, nearly all of it monitors, cords, accessories and plastic pieces) goes to the IRN, who sub-contracts with Allied Computer Brokers and charges us $.24/lb to recycle e-scrap into its component commodities. The IRN runs a super-convenient weekly pickup service for our hampers of non-reusable e-wastes large and small, boxes of lamps, and barrels of batteries & ballasts (and would also take all our pallets and other recyclables if we wanted).

We recycle small e-wastes and e-media (“you can hold it in one hand”) in white 5-gallon buckets. The IRN supplies screw-top 5-gal buckets (Plastican product, $11.10 apiece) which comply with our EH & S standards. We label them ("Universal Waste" and "Batteries/E-waste/E-media" sign) and stick a Zip-lock bag full of 100 (3"* 8") bags onto the side. The sign directs donors to bag their rechargeables, CFL's & lithium batteries before putting them into the bucket.

Our recycling drivers swap out the buckets on call and take them to a sorting room on our campus. Twice weekly, the high school-aged LABBB students come in (cost is about $300/month) and sort out the goods into these categories and receptacles:

--Alkaline batteries go loose and unbagged into a lidded 55-gal steel drum (cost to recycle is around $.28/lb; if we didn’t sort, then Mixed Battery charge is $3/lb, so sorters more than save their cost and allow us to recycle lots more goods)

--Rechargeable batteries go into a “Call2Recycle” box. These batteries must all be bagged. LABBB sorters use “Hippo” bags, standing the rolls of bags up vertically, peeling and tearing them off, loading them up with unbagged batteries, then tying the bags into an overhand knot. All these procedures can be done with nitrile gloves on. Hippo makes holders (e.g. supermarket vegetable bag holder) which we bought, but we haven’t figured out how to install them in a way that would enhance ergonomics. Call2Recycle boxes also come with bags, but their adhesive tape with peel-off cover is too hard to use while wearing nitrile gloves. We ship out about one C2R box per week, which amounts to about a ton per year. We are lucky that the RBRC sees fit to provide this free service. This is a great example of producer responsibility. I think we all need to take full advantage of the C2R program. In several Canadian provinces, C2R recycles ALL household batteries. It would be nice if they did so here in the US as well!

--Lithium batteries once bagged up as above go into a lidded 5-gallon bucket (IRN recycles these for $4.20/lb). We generate about a pound of these per week.

--Ballasts go loose and unbagged into a lidded 55-gal steel drum (cost is about $.25/lb). We still have a significant fraction of PCB ballasts turning up. Since we can recycle the non-PCB’s as well, we chuck them all in together.

--Cell phones, PDA’s, chargers & accessories go into a basket for packing up & free shipping to Corporate Renew in New Haven CT. We are paid a modest sum for these. We don’t mind if people want to sell their own phones, cameras, laptops etc., as long as they keep them out of the trash.

--Inkjets go into a basket for packing up & shipping to RecycleFirst in NH. They also pay a modest fee.

--Compact fluorescents, circlites, sodium & other mercury-containing lamps get bagged up & boxed up for shipment to the IRN. These cost around $.50 each to recycle. The IRN subcontracts with Complete Recycling Solutions in Fall River MA to recover and recycle the mercury, glass, metal and phosphor powder in the lamps.

--CD’s, DVD’s, memory sticks, audio tapes, video tapes, data tapes, jewel boxes, tape cases, random cords, chargers and all other handheld e-wastes and e-media are mixed into our hampers for computers & electronics recycling through the IRN. Cost to recycle these is $.24/lb.

--Corrugated boxes and used 5-gallon buckets are recycled with SingleStream recycling.

Rechargeable batteries have become ubiquitous on our campuses. Practically every student and many faculty and staff have laptop computers with about 6 grams of lithium in the Li-ion battery. Each month, new cordless e-devices including ever-fancier cell phones, iPads, PDA’s, and video cameras become the latest “must-haves.” Nearly all tradesmen on campus use rechargeable drills, flashlights, small vacuums etc. In addition, non-rechargeable lithium batteries are becoming more and more common in the student waste stream (especially button cells) due to the popularity of products like digital cameras, head lamps, calculators, watches, bicycle flashers, handheld PDA’s etc. On our campus, we’ve seen rapid growth in the number of AA and AAA-size “Energizer” lithium batteries and are starting to see quite a few “UltraLife” 9-volt lithiums too. Because of the US DOT’s requirement that lithium batteries be bagged or taped and recycled, and the Battery Act of 1996 regarding recycling of rechargeables, I think we all need to set up a comprehensive battery recovery system in all residential, academic and administrative campus buildings. I also think it’s only a matter of time before regulations mandate recycling of alkaline and all other batteries. The European Union, State of California and most Canadian provinces require recycling of ALL batteries. So does responsible campus materials management everywhere else.