Is there a good way to dispose of old alkaline batteries?

Question

Can alkaline batteries be recycled, or do they pollute the ground every time you throw them out?

Answer 1

You can take worn out batteries and energy efficient lightbulbs to IKEA - all locations have a recycling drop off.  We keep ours in a container and make a trip when the container if full.   Our kids love to empty the container into the IKEA recycling bins - and its a great way to teach recylcing.

Answer 2

Properly made modern alkaline cells contain very small amounts of heavy metals.  Panasonic quote 500ppm mercury by mass.  Cells sold in Europe are often marked to indicate that they contain zero cadmium.  In Norway we are no longer required to return used alkaline cells to the shop for disposal because they do not contain high levels of heavy metals.

Answer 3

I keep the used batteries hoping that one day the city will recycle them or at least seperate them from the regular garbage.

I suggest you can check with your local electronic stores (Radio Shack, etc.)  if they recycle them.

Answer 4

yeah they are recycled b/c they  contain toxic heavy metals that poison the environment..but since its not that common u have to find a battery recycling place..hope u find one!

Answer 5

Tesco are now taking small batteries up to 'D' I believe. I have seen and used one in Tesco Extra Llansamlet.

Answer 6

All council Tip's have a battery recycle point. They are about the size of a mini-skip and are the shape of a car battery.

Since we have a toddler with lots of noisy toys we get through a lot of batteries. We have a pot at home that we store up all our old batteries.

When ever we go to the tip we take the pot with us and drop off all the batteries.  

That stops them going in to landfill.

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

Radio Shack recycles batteries, but when I took them there, they told me it was perfectly safe to throw regular alkaline batteries away now.

Answer 8

Most cities have a Hazardous Waste depot where containers of old batteries and old car batteries can be dropped  off. Some  even have a pick up service. Look in  phone book under city services or on your cities website .  The City of North Bay  publishes a recycling calendar .