Many battery users still don’t see the point of recycling their lithium-ion batteries after they run flat. There’s loads of lithium we haven’t even started looking for, one visitor wrote in. I threw my lithium-ion batteries away in the trash and I didn’t have a problem. That’s fair enough, but somebody else did!
What’s the Problem with Trashing Lithium-Ion Batteries ?
Somebody else has to collect your trash, throw it in the back of a compactor, and take it away. That’s no problem for as long as your old lithium-ion batteries survive the experience in one piece. But what happens if they do not?
- When you threw your lithium-ion batteries away, they still had some charge left, although it was not enough to use.
- This meant that the chemicals inside were still active. But that was okay for as long as they were inside the case.
- If the compactor, or other trash processing equipment broke open the battery case, then that changed.
- The chemicals got all mixed up together. They reacted in a way that generated high heat and explosive gases.
Life was not that simple after you threw away your lithium-ion batteries. The chemical reaction could cause a fire, even an explosion. This could damage equipment, or harm or kill a worker processing your trash.
Other People Also Throw Batteries Away
You are not alone if you throw your used batteries away in the trash. Fires and explosions have become regular events at garbage recycling centers worldwide. Take the folk in a mediaeval half-timbered village called Elstow, in England.
Last year, the trash recycling site at Elstow burned down, most likely from a lithium-ion battery. This year, the same thing happened at their back-up site at a place called Bletchley. Fortunately, nobody was harmed during either incident.
We can’t think of a person right now, who recycles their trash 100% correctly. We have to pull together and manage this situation better. We cannot continue with an ‘I threw my lithium-ion batteries away’ approach. Life is not that straight forward. It is time to start recycling all our trash correctly!
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