Prevention of Household Battery Waste
To reduce waste, start with prevention. Starting with prevention creates less or no leftover waste to become potentially hazardous waste. The following are steps to take to prevent household battery waste.
Check to see if you already have the batteries on hand before buying more.
When suited to the task buy hand operated items that function without batteries.
Look for the batteries that have less mercury and heavy metals.
Consider rechargeable batteries. They can be reused repeatedly and can be recycled when no longer keeping a charge.
Where to dispose household batteries (A, AA, AAA, C, D)
Used batteries can be taken to the Benton County Moderate Risk Waste Facility, (3102 Twin Bridges Road) at the Horn Rapids Landfill. Household batteries are not a regulated waste. Although discouraged, it is legal to place them in the trash. For your convienence, a battery collection container or "bucket" has been placed inside the north entrance of City Hall, 505 Swift Boulevard, near the cashier's window.
Where to take rechargeable batteries
Rechargeable batteries should have the terminals taped with duct tape or electricians tape and/or placed separately in plastic bags. Contact with other batteries can cause heat, smoke and/or fire - even with little life in the batteries. Precaution should always be used when placed rechargeable batteries together in the same container.
Take rechargeable batteries to a household hazardous waste facility or collection event, or drop them off in battery collection containers.
Benton County Moderate Risk Waste Facility
3102 Twin Bridges Road, Richland
942-7387
Environmental Hazards of Batteries
People are using more and more household batteries. The average person owns about two button batteries, ten normal (A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9V, etc.) batteries, and throws out about eight household batteries per year. About three billion batteries are sold annually in the U.S. averaging about 32 per family or ten per person.
A battery is an electrochemical device with the ability to convert chemical energy to electrical energy to provide power to electronic devices. Batteries may contain cadmium, mercury, copper, zinc, lead, manganese, nickel, and lithium which may create a hazard when disposed incorrectly.
Batteries may produce the following potential problems or hazards:
Pollute the lakes and streams as the metals vaporize into the air when burned.
Contribute to heavy metals that potentially may leach from solid waste landfills.
Expose the environment and water to lead and acid.
Contain strong corrosive acids.
May cause burns or danger to eyes and skin.
In landfills, heavy metals have the potential to leach slowly into soil, groundwater or surface water. Dry cell batteries contribute about 88 percent of the total mercury and 50 percent of the cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream. In the past, batteries accounted for nearly half of the mercury used in the United States and over half of the mercury and cadmium in the municipal solid waste stream. When burned, some heavy metals such as mercury may vaporize and escape into the air, and cadmium and lead may end up in the ash.