You’ve most likely already had this experience a couple of times in your life: a battery died, you replaced it, and wondered what to do with the dead one. The first thought of putting it into the trash bin might come to mind. However, it’s illegal in California and widely considered an environmental sin.
There are so many varieties of batteries that it’s hard to know how to properly dispose of them. Fret no longer and find out how to dispose of which battery type. If in doubt, you can always check with a junk removal service. Junk removal services always take care of E-waste. To view more check which local junk removal takes your batteries.
The Only Batteries You Can Put Into The Bin
There’s only one type of battery that you can legally dispose of in your regular dumpster. Alkaline batteries have been produced without mercury since 1996. Therefore, they don’t contain hazardous materials. These are the types of batteries you’d find in remote controls, smoke alarms, toys, or also flashlights.
While you can dump them in your trash bin, it’s best not to toss more than one battery at a time. Batteries often have some current left inside and could create sparks if tossed with another battery. Make sure your trash bin doesn’t catch fire due to tossed batteries and wrap them in plastic. It’s rather important to note those are still considered hazardous waste in some areas. In California, for example, it’s illegal to put any batteries into your regular trash bin. It’s best to check with your local municipalities for further guidelines regarding the disposal of alkaline batteries. You can also ring a junk removal that takes care of E-waste for further advice.
Rechargeable B,atteries
Rechargeable batteries can be recharged at least a thousand times to be used again and again. You might also get rechargeable batteries for remote controls, toys, smoke alarms, etc. They do look very similar to regular alkaline batteries. It’s best to take a good look at the battery if you’re not sure. It should be mentioned somewhere directly on the battery if it’s rechargeable or an alkaline battery.
The rechargeable variety contains cadmium, lead, mercury, and nickel, which are hazardous materials. Never toss them in your dumpster, since they can, pollute the environment. Dispose of them at recycling facilities or collection sites for old batteries. You may be fortunate to find a special disposal box for batteries at supermarkets and stores for electronic goods. Should you find neither in your area, you might as well ask for a junk removal service in your area that can handle hazardous waste.
Modern Lithium Batteries
Lithium batteries are commonly used in mobiles, tablets, laptops, or digital cameras. While they are rechargeable, they are made of different materials than typical rechargeable batteries. Lithium isn’t considered to be an environmental hazard at this point. But as the number of lithium batteries keeps piling up at landfills, they start to be a concern. Laptops and tablets also have to be disposed of separately.
Their battery has to go one way and the remains the other. That’s because these devices are made with toxic materials. Should you encounter a dead battery in your laptop, you may want to have it replaced. Your local repair shop would take care of the proper disposal. If you’re tossing the whole device, better get in touch with a junk removal handling E-waste and recycling to electronic goods.
Button Batteries
These small batteries are usually used in small devices like watches, electronic scales, LED tealights, or hearing aids. Unfortunately, they contain hazardous materials such as mercury oxide, silver oxide, or zinc-air. Consequently, you will need to bring them to a hazardous waste collection site. Should you plan a spring clean, you can keep them and have a junk removal service deal with it. Make sure in advance, your junk removal takes hazardous waste materials.
Car Batteries
Car batteries usually have a long life as you keep on recharging them whilst driving. At some point, you may have to replace the battery, though. The older your car is, the likelier is your car battery to die completely. You can usually leave it at a junkyard or a collection site for hazardous waste. If you get your car battery replaced at a repair shop, they usually handle the proper disposal of it.
Storing Old Batteries
You may not dispose of one or two old batteries once they died unless you find a handy collection site. Thus, automatically store your batteries. However, most people don’t store old batteries properly. First of all, you should always cover the terminals of your batteries with tape. As previously mentioned, they usually still carry a bit of charge that can lead to creating currants, once batteries touch.
If they do get in touch with steel wool or other conductive materials, a fire can break out. Secondly, keep old batteries in a non-conductive container like a plastic or cardboard box. Keep it in a safe place out of reach from children or pets to minimize health hazards. If you have several varieties of batteries, do not store them in the same box. The batteries could leak and cause a hazardous reaction. Hence, you should better bag several old batteries of the same kind in a bag.
Parting Words On Batteries Junk removal
Next time you clear out your garage or even your entire home, you can simply hand the old batteries over to the junk removal service. Pretty much every junk removal accepts old batteries. If they’d not normally deal with it, they know at least a drop site for hazardous waste. It saves you a lot of worries about finding out local regulations as well as finding a collection site. Alternatively, you can take your collected batteries to your advantage. Use them as a reason to organize a thorough junk removal of your home. You’ve probably accumulated a lot of clutter.
