Alkaline Battery Recycling: How To Do It?With today's technological advancement, the need for more batteries for electronic gadgets continue to increase. Laptops, cell phones, PDAs, music players, game consoles, calculators, toys-these are just some of the electronic stuff that people use in their daily lives that need batteries to function effectively. In fact, in the United States alone, more than three billion household batteries are sold yearly, and a great number goes on the trash instead of being recycled. Batteries are devices that have the ability to convert chemical energy to electrical energy. They are exceptional products that make so many things portable and functional. There are various types of batteries widely available to everyday consumers. The two main types are disposable or non-rechargeable batteries and rechargeable, both of which are widely used. Different types of disposable batteries include zinc-carbon, zinc-chloride, silver-oxide, lithium iron disulphide, lithium thionyl chloride, mercury, zinc-air, thermal, and alkaline batteries. Of these types, alkaline batteries rank on top of the widely used disposable batteries because of their so-called "long-life" capacity. Rechargeable or storage batteries include types such as lead-based and nickel-based batteries; silver-zinc, lithium-ion, and flow batteries. Other types include other metal-based compounds including molten salt, sodium-sulfur, iron, nanotitanate, and alkaline. Among the different types of disposable and rechargeable batteries available in the market today, alkaline batteries are considered standard household batteries since they are used in a wide variety of electronic products. They are greatly in demand for walkmans, clocks to remote controls, smoke detectors, flashlights, and alarms. In the United States, alkaline batteries have the most number of batteries sold. As used alkaline batteries begin to pile up and multiply, disposal becomes a problem. Thus, there is indeed an extreme need for alkaline battery disposal via recycling. Used alkaline batteries should not be kept in storage for long. Through time, these batteries begin to leak potassium hydroxide, a corrosive and acidic substance that is known to cause respiratory problems and skin and eye irritation. Batteries can also pollute lakes and streams as their metal components vaporize when burned. They also contribute to the increasing heavy metal waste in landfills. Disposable and rechargeable alkaline batteries are the only battery types that do not have recycling options, making it quite difficult to encourage alkaline battery recycling. While other battery types have formulated recycling options, alkaline batteries, especially the newly manufactured ones, are safe to put in the trash. In 1996, the United States Environmental Protection Agency helped sign into law the Battery Act which addresses the phase-out of mercury use in household batteries and the establishment of proper collection methods and recycling schemes. Alkaline batteries sold in American stores now have only 10% of what previously-manufactured types contained or no mercury at all. But it is still a responsible act to check with any local or state recycling programs regarding the disposal of alkaline batteries, whether they are disposable or rechargeable. Until today, most people feel that it is impractical to recycle alkaline batteries due to the low value of the materials that could be taken out of them. Since these batteries contain zinc, manganese, and metal, recycling efforts are geared towards the recovery of such materials. When alkaline batteries are recycled, they are first grinded into smaller pieces, to expose active materials found inside. A separate mechanical and chemical process will release the zinc and manganese and convert them to slurry, which is concentrated into a paste when water is eliminated. The metal pieces taken from the batteries will be sold to scrap yards or to smelters. The slurry paste is sent to another smelter who focuses on zinc and manganese production. Most people may think that alkaline battery recycling is merely a waste of time but once they become aware of the possible health dangers of the chemical contents of these batteries then they would definitely change their minds and go for the recycling of alkaline batteries. I will discuss lead acid battery recycling in another future article. |