The negative: Spending more time at home, we probably find ourselves using more batteries. That means that we are also discarding more batteries, once they are spent. For years, I’ve been keeping my dead batteries in an old can in the garage, patiently awaiting the arrival of electronic recycling events. Unfortunately, those events are few and far between, and some of the events don’t even accept household batteries. So what’s one to do with their batteries, once their energy is used up?
The positive: I recently read in Green Matters that there is a handy dandy online recycling tool that directs people where to go to unload their old batteries. The resource can be found at Earth911.com, which features two blank fields where people can input the type of material they are looking to recycle (batteries for example), and a ZIP code. I was surprised to find so many different places that offer recycling services for dead batteries in WNY. There was also a breakdown of different batteries, ranging from household types to car batteries.
Aside from batteries, the website also sources information on where to recycle paints, hazardous materials, and electronics, among others.
It might be very easy to toss a battery in the trash and forget about it. Unfortunately, the planet never forgets, and will be dealing with the problem for centuries to come. It’s our responsibility to keep as many problematic products out of landfills as possible. This is one way that we can all easily participate, as we sit around waiting for daily activities to resume.
WNY recyclers are invited to add their services to the website. The more the merrier, and the happier the planet will be.
*You might want to wait until the COVID-19 coast is clear, before leaving the house to embark upon any recycling missions. Lockdown is the best time to assemble everything together, in preparation for delivery post-pandemic.