It’s no secret the rest of the battery industry is jealous of the 95% recycling rate of lead-acid batteries. Our part of the industry cracked the code because our batteries are technically simple and easy to break down. However, Don Brunell’s inconvenient truth about batteries exposed in Courier Herald focused on the environmental disaster caused by other types.
Garbage Cloaks the Inconvenient Truth About Batteries
Don Brunell says “Each year Americans throw away more than three billion batteries constituting 180,000 tons of hazardous material.” This is a common problem worldwide. “Moreover the situation is likely to get much worse as the world shifts to electric vehicles,” he warns.
Green.Com says more than 86,000 tons of single-use alkaline batteries (AAA, AA, C and D) are thrown away every year. These are the apparently harmless cells we use in electronic toys and games, flashlights, and portable audio equipment. Harmless they are not! Don Brunell says the inconvenient truth about batteries is these contribute 20% of hazardous waste in our garbage dumps.
How These Batteries Contaminate Our Environment
Incredibly, the spent batteries from these devices contain toxic metals and acids including cadmium, cobalt, lead, mercury and nickel. These then leech out after crushing during landfill compaction, or after their metal casings corrode away.
This leeching contaminates our drinking water, and eventually our oceans. When we eat seafood the metals and acids enter our bodies, and may cause numerous diseases if sufficiently concentrated. Another inconvenient truth about batteries is we appear collectively unable to hand them in at recycle depots.
Perhaps the government could make rechargeable batteries and their chargers more economically attractive and single-use cells socially unacceptable? The cost attached to a campaign will be immeasurably less than clearing the toxic swamp we are creating now.
Related
The History of the Alkaline Battery
What Happens Inside Alkaline Batteries
Preview Image: King of the Trash Hill
