The news headlines are filled with stories of what can happen, when lithium-ion (I-ion) batteries suffer damage or misuse. This emphasis has taken the public eye off the ball, when it comes to other types of batteries. We decided to correct this oversight with advice on how to act responsibly, with batteries of all kinds.
All Batteries Have Chemicals Needing Responsible Care
Only lithium batteries have a (slight) chance of overheating, catching fire, and exploding. However, all batteries do contain chemicals, and some of these are toxic. Toxic means they can harm our environment, if they escape from battery cases. Some can even burn our skin too.
The most immediately dangerous batteries are the silvery round disks, they call ‘coin’ or ‘button’ batteries. Small children may mistake them for sweets and suck them, enjoying the tingling feeling. If they swallow them, which does happen, they get stuck in their digestion system, and may cause serious, even fatal burns.
That tingling, and those burns are proof that flat batteries still contain an amount of electrical energy. In other words, they are only partly ‘flat’. They just don’t have enough electrical energy to power your device. This why you ought to act responsibly with ALL batteries, not just lithium-ion ones.
Act Responsibly With Batteries When They Are ‘Flat’
Clearly, we cannot simply throw away our ‘flat’ batteries, after we have used them. If we add them to our general garbage, then they could end up in landfill. We should add them to a refuse recycle chain instead, where a specialist can dismantle them and recover their raw materials.
Those precautions are particularly important, because an increasing number of batteries are lithium-ion. If these end up in garbage truck crushers, they could overheat, expand and explode. This can harm the truck operator going about their duties, and keeping our town clean for us.
So please, take all your ‘flat’ batteries to an official battery collection point, after masking the terminals. We rely on these amazing devices to power our portable electronic equipment. Please follow this advice, so we do not inadvertently harm each other in the process.
More Information
Timely Reminder to Recycle All Batteries
