Questions concerning batteries have been numerous recently. I have shared bits of information concerning them in many articles in the past year, but today I will try to get as much battery information as possible in one article.
The rules for recycling batteries are not as easy as recycling an aluminum can or a piece of cardboard, but the recycling of a battery is possibly much more important to the environment.
A hundred years ago, the number of items in a household that ran on batteries was limited, perhaps none. Twenty or thirty years later, most houses had at least one or two flashlights in case of an emergency. A few years later, the transistor radio showed up and you could stay in contact with the rest of the world even if you were fishing on a remote lake in northern Minnesota or just camping in the back yard.
Many of the Fillmore County residents that read these articles can remember how battery usage has changed over the years and many of those changes have occurred in the past 50 years….. and the number of items in a home that depend on battery power is perhaps at least 50. As I sit here writing this article, I am using five batteries….two hearing aids, a watch, a phone, and a pacemaker. We are certainly dependent on these little creatures.
Somewhere between three and four billion batteries are sold in the United States each year. That means at least 30 or 40 per household. If you wear hearing aids, they may account for 100 or more per person. Button batteries and rechargeable batteries need to be recycled. I can give you at least seven reasons to recycle batteries….lead, mercury, arsenic, lithium, chromium, nickel, and cadmium. These potential pollutants have a habit of getting into the air, soil, and water if burned or buried rather than recycled. The environment can get along very well without these additives.
Many alkaline batteries lose their power before ever being used. Heat and time are not kind to batteries. Unused batteries die over time. Many people store their batteries in a freezer to preserve and prolong the life of alkaline batteries. At the present time, alkaline batteries are considered landfill garbage in Fillmore County.
However, that cute, little button battery from your watch, TV remote, or hearing aid is not meant to be simply thrown with the landfill garbage. Batteries can be brought to Hazardous Household Waste Day or dropped off at the Resource Recovery Center any time during regular business hours. Only one in six households disposes of batteries correctly.
If you dispose of an alkaline battery in the garbage, tape over the posts or place each one in a single sandwich bag to keep the posts from touching. Even a “dead” 9-volt battery can have the power to create a spark that can cause a fire.
Rechargeable batteries are found in all devices that need to be “plugged in” now and then when they go dead. Lawn trimmers, hand held vacuum cleaners, cell phones, tablets, power tools, blood pressure cuffs, cameras, and remote phones.
If you have 10 or 15 minutes with nothing better to do, make a list of electronic devices per room in your house that use batteries, rechargeable or not, and see how many things you use that depend on batteries of any kind. I am sure you will be surprised and I am also sure you won’t find all of them the first time if you compare your list with someone else in the home. Don’t forget the garage door remote, the clock that keeps time when the power goes out, or your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
If you have any other comments or questions concerning the proper disposal of batteries in Fillmore County, please don’t hesitate to contact me.