There May Be No Need to Recycle Alkaline Batteries
I have worried for several years about all the odd items that should be recycled, but normally just go in to the household trash. A recent post and its comments touched on this subject. Thinking we could do more to recycle all the alkaline batteries our family goes through each year, I started making phone calls and doing some research. What I discovered really surprised me!
Most of what you find on the internet supported my belief that, ideally all batteries should be recycled. But, it seems that most of what I found on the internet is incorrect and outdated information. It turns out that maybe we can be less concerned about throwing our alkaline batteries in the trash than I had thought.
My education started with a call to a local battery store asking them if I could save alkaline batteries and bring them in to them for recycling. They said “no” and that “recycling alkaline batteries was not necessary”. They do accept rechargeable batteries for recycling. I contacted a national chain, Batteries Plus, and was told the same thing.
Here is what I found on the Duracell Battery web site:
“Alkaline batteries can be safely disposed of with normal household waste. Due to concerns about mercury in the municipal solid waste stream, Duracell has voluntarily eliminated all of the added mercury from its alkaline batteries since 1993 — while maintaining the performance you demand. Our alkaline batteries are composed primarily of common metals — steel, zinc and manganese — and do not pose a health or environmental risk during normal use or disposal.”
The Energizer web site says: “Energizer recommends recycling rechargeable, but not alkaline batteries, even indicating that alkaline batteries can safely go to city incinerators.”
I even found a couple of sites that said that if you bring alkaline batteries to recycling centers or events, they are separated from the rechargeables and typically end up in the landfill or incinerator anyway.
Some organizations are quite blunt in their information. The Consumer Electronics Association Question and Answer Website says: “Alkaline batteries are not recyclable. They’ll just be thrown out in a landfill, or at the most a hazardous waste landfill.”
I found only one company that says they recycle alkaline batteries, but I saw another web site that mentioned this same company and said they store most of their collected alkaline batteries in underground concrete bunkers, waiting for the day when the materials in them can be recovered with more cost effective methods.
In summary, because alkaline batteries no longer contain mercury and because of the small amount of recoverable metals in them, they are not typically recycled. Some claims are made that using regular alkaline batteries is actually better environmentally than using rechargeables. I have trouble with this claim, but the reasoning behind it is this. Rechargeable batteries can contain mercury, cadmium, lead, and lithium. There are environmental impacts associated with the manufacture of rechargeable batteries. Many rechargeable batteries do end up being tossed into the regular trash by people who are either unaware that they should be recycled, or feel it is just too much trouble to do so.
It appears the reality is this… Alkaline batteries do not contain as many toxic components as I had thought. They do, however contain metals like nickel, cobalt, zinc, manganese, and silver. At this time there are no real cost effective methods available to recover these metals. In addition, many claims are made that these common metals pose no environmental threat when disposed of with normal household trash.
I think it might take a while for me to get used to this reality. I would still be worried if your community uses an incinerator to dispose of trash as the metals from the batteries might end up in the air. I do think I will be able to feel less guilty when I do toss out expended alkaline batteries in our trash which goes to a landfill. I will continue to make sure any rechargeable batteries or car batteries we use up get recycled, but I may have to revise my thinking and get off my high horse when it comes to alkaline batteries.
Let me know what you think and feel free to include links to information I might have missed. Recycling is an important and visible issue and we need to make sure we have our facts right!
1204807110937621082 
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Interesting post, got me thinking, there is a lot of companies out there that will recycle household batteries
http://www.rawmaterials.com/rmcmain.htm
A very interesting quote from Mountain equipment co op is “household batteries are responsible for between 50-70% of all heavy metals found in landfills.
Comment by Bob — November 9, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
Thanks for the comment and links, Bob. I fixed the second link so that it opens to the correct page. That is the sort of info I was looking for. Though I wish they had linked the source of that 50 -70% figure. Most of what I found indicated that the alkaline batteries were not a problem. I wonder if some of the confusion stems from this… The metals are indeed present in the batteries, but the metals themselves are ones that are quite plentiful in nature. (Nickel for example.) Maybe the consensus is that metals like that are not a problem in landfills. I would think they would cause trouble when incinerated and released to the air.
I wonder how the average consumer gets batteries to a company like rawmaterials? In order for it to work, there would have to be an easy and free way for the consumer to recycle the batteries or they won’t do it. I may give them a call and get more info.
-Will
Comment by Will — November 9, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
Thanks for the leg work on this Will.
I have big issues with the Energy Returned on Investment (EROI) involved in a lot of recycling issues. I’m not sure how it plays out now, but I know in the late 1980’s and into the early 1990’s my region the capacity for recycling newspaper could only handle about a 10th of what entered the recycling stream. I saw the huge sea of pallets loaded with paper just sitting there and a fair amount of energy was used to collect it.
At one point a company offered to take it off the township’s hands and we were all excited about it. They were going to pulp it and use it for blow-in insulation for houses. But when they came out to look at it it, the fact that it had sat out in all kinds of weather it had gotten rained on and turned moldy so it ended up in the landfill anyway. In the long run more energy was spent on it than if it had gone directly to a landfill.
If we can get people recycling the items that do give us a good EROI like Glass and Aluminum and the items that add toxins to the environment like rechargeable batteries. Then we worry about everything else.
Comment by techfun — November 9, 2007 @ 9:31 pm
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It may take several hours for the front page article to appear. You review however has been published.
Comment by Les — November 10, 2007 @ 9:53 pm
Hi Les - And thanks for the review! I hope your Site Review Catalog takes off. It could be a great resource as it grows!
-Will
Comment by Will — November 10, 2007 @ 10:49 pm
Hey Will about single use batteries our local recycling booklet instructs us to take all batteries, even the alkaline into hazardous waste depot. They mention that most of the single use batteries do not contain hazardous materials, but they may contain small traces that when accumulated can eventually pose danger.
Here is the Canadian link:
http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/myenvironment/home/batteries.php
Comment by Anna — November 17, 2007 @ 9:38 am
Will, I appreciate your comcerns, but your facts are not entirely correct. It is true that there should not (i.e. chinese made toys should not contain lead) be any mercury in U.S. alkaline batteries, since 1996 Act of Congress ban.
However, those “common” metals you refer to are heavy metals considered toxic contaminants to our drinking water, as well as wildlife. As a chemist, I often simplify the issue as “too much of a good thing.” We can only process very tiny portions of these metals; even Vitamin C is toxic in very large doses.
It should not be too difficult to deposit your batteries in a “Big Green Box” program sponsored by a number of retailers, including Whole Foods Market and Walgreens. See http://www.biggreenbox.com
I hope this helps to resolve your questions.
Comment by Pete — January 7, 2008 @ 11:10 am
Hi Pete, I agree. The problem is so much conflicting information. I called Toxco, the company that runs the Big Green Box program this morning and had an in-depth conversation with one of their technical people. I will post soon with the specifics I learned from him, but for now, yes, use the BGB program if you can. Alkaline batteries collected through that program are indeed recycled!
-Will
Comment by Will — January 7, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
go into walmart or BJ’s or any store. rack upon rack upon rack of batteries. a pallet of them weighs tons. to say that we don’t need to recycle alk’s because they don’t have metals known to be toxic, like mercury, or that the metals they do contain, like nickel, aren’t in short supply, misses the point. it is simply more responsible to recycle them and reuse what there is to reuse. imagine all the energy that went into mining the ore, smelting and purifying, transporting, manufacturing, packaging etc etc. all so a battery could power a radio for a few weeks and then permanently end up in a landfill, taking up precious space? or be burned, and dispersed? i’m still researching the alternatives but the BGB program by Toxco does seem like a responsible solution. If they can make a profit off of it and return the various metals to the productive stream, or even store used batteries in a sensible way against future use as metal prices go up and down, then I say more power to them.
Comment by Andy — March 8, 2008 @ 5:56 am
Hi Andy! You make a good point and I feel the same way. Economics plays a huge role in recycling, though. Unfortunately the success of recycling individual products often depends on these economics. Toxco claims they are doing it within these economics, but they still charge for the Big Green Box. Imagine how much more successful the program would be if Toxco could provide the box for free and still make it profitable.
-Will
Comment by Will — March 8, 2008 @ 12:35 pm