Why Recycling of Batteries is Important?
With increasing effects of global warming, recycling is becoming an important need of today’s world. Batteries are one of the entities which are very important to be recycled. Improper disposal of usual batteries is a major treat of pollution for natural resources like water and atmosphere. Chemicals and gases of these waste batteries will cause a great damage to the earth’s atmosphere. Non-rechargeable batteries can’t be recycled easily, so recycling events of such batteries is very rare. As a result, these non-rechargeable batteries are much more expensive and harmful to the nature. Use of rechargeable batteries should be promoted because they can be recycled easily.
Introduction to batteries
Batteries have a great role to play in modern life. In spite of their great uses, batteries are also one of the major hazards to the clean environment. Batteries contain metals like nickel, cadmium, zinc and lithium. These heavy metals are not harmful in general practice. But when they get disposed off, then they became extremely harmful to the nature. A general method of disposing batteries in landfills, but is not an efficient way at all; because harmful chemicals which secrete out from batteries, contaminate land and water resources at their surroundings. Even the battery production procedure is extremely harmful, because industries extract the necessary metals at the cost of environment. These extraction procedures are highly polluting.
Concept of recycling
Till 1996, efforts were made by countries like USA to redesign and recycle the disposed batteries in order to make them environment friendly. They used a strategy of decreasing the amounts of harmful substances like cadmium, mercury and other chemicals substances in production of batteries. As a result new batteries were safe to be disposed directly in atmosphere. Some states like California, developed recycling units, these units were able to even recycle most harmful alkaline based batteries. It has been suggested to all that before disposing a battery, one should always consider nearby recycling units. By considering environmental safety, almost each country has developed battery recycling units in their big city.
Rechargeable batteries
Rechargeable batteries are very easy to recharge, so one should always prefer to go for a rechargeable battery. Rechargeable batteries are easy to produce, so they are easily available. They provide facility of recharging, so there is no need to change a battery again and again. They are much more economic and environmental friendly. Rechargeable batteries are used to provide power to laptops, PDA and cellular devices. In various countries now a days it is even possible to recycle a car battery. Batteries which are used to power our vehicles like motorcycles and cars are “lead” batteries which are extremely hazardous for the environment.
Almost all automobile selling houses who sell a new battery, also accept old batteries for recycling. Even there are some recycling centers which don’t charge anything for the facility of recycling, in fact; they pay one for his trouble. After getting all these facilities one should never hesitate to recycle his used battery because this is not just a necessity, but also a responsibility against environment. In many countries there are no rules and regulations about recycling a battery, but rules are not important, one can bring a huge difference by doing so. It’s an important step to clean a planet, where we all live.
In the U.S. and Canada, the nonprofit public service program, Call2Recycle, accepts all small, dry-cell rechargeable batteries for recycling at no cost. While a rechargeable battery can be recharged up to 1,000 times and can last between 2-5 years, it will eventually wear out and will no longer hold a proper charge. The batteries are melted down at a state-of-the-art metals reclamation facility. All reusable metals are extracted and processed for reuse. Nothing goes into the landfills.