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| Toss out | 19% | 15 votes | Total: 79 votes | |
| Recycle | 81% | 64 votes |
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Add to FavoritesTo the average American, it's simply assumed that one must recycle whenever the option is available. However, what most Americans don't understand is that recycling batteries is having serious, negative, and persistent detrimental effects on the environment and the United States economy.
"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle": the mantra every man, woman, and child in the USA has had burned into their craniums for the last 20 years. Yes, overall our environmental efforts have made a dent in ecological damage, but batteries are a major exception to this rule.
Batteries (mostly composed of metal, acid, neutronium, and plastic) actually use up forty-two times their energy output in fuel in order to recycle. This means that a single AAA battery costs the planet almost 65 watts of ecological damage. If the battery were thrown out instead, those watts could be put to better use, such as running an environmentally friendly screen-saver for over 2,500 minutes. In other words, every battery that's recycled is actually causing more long-term negative impact on the Earth than an entire aerosol can does.
Not only does battery recycling use up more electricity than simply throwing them out, it also robs the Earth of the rare components and resources inside every battery. Each Energizer that's recycled is, de facto, denying our planet of its alkali metals, hydrochloric acids, and plastic shells. Do these components grow on trees? Of course not. Without a steady supply of dead batteries, it may only be as little as 200 years before the Earth's acid supplies are drained. Then what?
Keeping batteries out of the natural circle of life isn't just detrimental to Earth; it also has a negative impact on society. Normally when a battery dies, it is thrown out in a landfill, giving its previous owner a chance to grieve. When a battery is instead recycled, the consumer must wake up every morning to know his/her battery was torn limb-from-cell and re-constituted like an ungodly Frankensteinian creation. Naturally, the result is fear, anger, and sadness, and these negative emotions can be channeled back into society as violence, adultery, and anti-rechargable hate crimes.
Finally, recycling batteries devastates the economies of every country involved. Poor battery-miners living on less than $1 a day in sub-saharan African countries lose out on their only source of income. Battery painters, who adorn batteries such as Duracells in bronze and black, must also go hungry. Finally, the end-product consumer loses, due to the wasteful recycling system whose megawatts were so uneconomically spent. The net result of battery recycling? Worldwide capital loss and persistent economic depression.
Recycling batteries isn't just a bad idea; it's downright irresponsible. Unless we as a people move to ban this barbaric practice, it will continue to ravage our wilderness, steal our jobs, and frustrate the American Dream. So the next time you kill a battery, give it a proper burial and stand proud knowing you've protected our fragile planet.
Learn more about this author, Jon Tran.
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Recycle
Reducing the hazardous waste in landfills starts at home. Millions of households are producing billions of pounds of solid waste. Products used every day in our homes leach hazardous chemicals after entering landfills. There are a number of simple steps that average consumer can take to limit the damage that many of these toxic materials are doing to the environment.
The garbage situation has become a big concern in cities all around the world and not only is this a political issue, but it is also a problem that has caught the attention of the general population. We all realize there is a growing problem but nobody likes to admit that their garbage is contributing to the problem.
Many municipalities have already started a recycling program to deal with the growing mountains of paper, plastic, glass, etc. Although it takes a bit of effort on the part of the public to sort and separate their garbage, people are now beginning to realize that the future of our environment is at stake.
One household product that is causing a problem these days is throwaway batteries. Each year, Americans throw away 84.000 tons of alkaline batteries. These AA, C and D cells that power electronic toys and games, portable audio equipment and a wide range of other gadgets comprise 20% of the household hazardous materials present around the country in America's landfills.
When a battery in one of the products we use fails, we simply run out and buy a replacement. The dead battery ends up in the garbage and no one thinks about where it goes and what happens to it after the garbage is picked up.
Sealed inside these alkaline cells are harmful materials which are not encountered by consumers during normal use. However, when the batteries enter a landfill, the casings can be crushed, or can easily degrade, which causes mercury and other toxins to leach into the environment.
The problem of batteries in landfills is one of the easiest to solve. Using rechargeable power can significantly reduce the number of batteries which end up in landfills. Rechargeable batteries can be used again and again, up to 1,000 times. One rechargeable cell can replace up to 300 throwaway batteries, keeping the landfill free not only from the batteries themselves, but also from the paper and plastic materials that are used to package them.
There are a number of manufacturers in the country today who deal in rechargeable products and some of them have a number of programs already in place to ensure that rechargeable batteries never enter a landfill at all. For example, one of the largest manufacturers of rechargeable products is now offering a lifetime replacement guarantee on all round cells. If the product ever fails to accept or hold a charge, the company will promptly replace it and recycle the used cell.
If you have an environmental agency in your area, you might like to work on this issue with them, or perhaps they already have a program set up to dispose of used batteries. As a concerned citizen, your suggestions and input will be invaluable to them as they attempt to come up with some solutions.
Learn more about this author, Perry Toone.
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