We all have different devices in the house powered by batteries of different kinds: but when they finish, how can we? Please recycle these batteries or dispose of them safely? In this article we try to see how you can make the most of your batteries and give them a new life if possible.
How to recycle batteries and dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way
Electronic devices are now an important part of our home, our offices, our life. As tech lovers, we don’t want to at all give up the best devices and gadgets. But it becomes important to do it in an environmentally conscious and attentive way.
So let’s see how to fully exploit, recycle and dispose of our batteries, both those included in the devices and the classic batteries.
Make use of the stacks all the way
The first way to reduce your ecological footprint is to make the most of the devices you already own. Make sure un battery is really exhausted before using another, it reduces the amount of rare materials that must be extracted from the soil. In particular, lithium is a material that requires a lot of resources for extraction.
And then there is the amount of wasted energy to consider. Every year Italy generates 450 million batteries that become waste. 40% of these batteries are thrown away with a certain amount of residual energy. The result is that every have we throw away 1.800.000 kWh: enough to power 20,000 cars for one hour, or to cover the energy needs of 600 homes for one hour.
To avoid this waste, just put the batteries that seem exhausted in a device that requires less energy. For example a remote control for the TV (there is one in 92.5% of homes), or one wireless mouse, an alarm clock, a digital camera.
Duracell research shows that about half of Italians try to put exhausted batteries in another device, while 14% do so only sometimes. More than a third of respondents, however, do not try to put batteries in a low-power device like a remote control: 36% did not know it could be done, 43% do it for convenience.
How to dispose of and recycle used batteries
The first step therefore starts from inside your home: try to exploit the batteries to the full. But there comes a time when batteries no longer work: we need a way to recycle them. The first step concerns the conscious waste collection.
According to a study by the National Coordination Center for Batteries and Accumulators (CDCNPA), 18.5 thousand tons of batteries are used in our country (an average of 6.5 for each Italian). But only 25%, equal to about 4.3 thousand tons, arrives at the collection centers: it is 110 million pieces, less than two stacks each.
A real sin because the 60% of the materials that make up the batteries can be recycledor. On the other hand, 40% cannot be recovered due to the lack of suitable technologies, or because too much waste would be produced to have a positive impact on the environment.
Where to throw them?
Separate collection remains in the hands of the municipalities, therefore each municipality has different methods for collection and recycling of batteries. However, most municipalities do not collect batteries from their homes (which must not be thrown away in unsorted waste).
The advice therefore is to arm yourself with patience and try to ask the Municipality or your ecological station what options you have. You will often find collection points in shopping malls, electronics stores or even near banks and other businesses in the centers of cities and towns. It is about large metal containers suitably marked. And then there remains the possibility of bringing the exhausted batteries directly to the iecological only.
Finding these collection points is easier for those who live in Lombardy, which is the region with the most collection centers per capita: other regions have fewer dedicated spaces. So those who live in other areas may need to move more: in these cases you can see on Facebook or other social networks if there are associations that collect these e-waste.
Take advantage of scrapping (especially for smartphones and the like)
If the battery collection centers are quite available, it is more complicated to dispose and recycle the batteries included in your electronic devices such as smartphone, laptop, tablet e affini. IIn this case, you will have to go directly to the ecological island closest to your home.
But if you get the chance, often buying from the your new smartphone manufacturer’s site you have the option to dispose of your old phone. Many manufacturers also make an overestimation of used vehicles to encourage this operation (a bit like it happens with the scrapping of cars). This way you can avoid polluting and also save some money.
Unfortunately, at the moment there is no simple and unambiguous solution to recycle the batteries at home. But what we can do is pay attention to use them all the way, and then take them to the collection centers when they are finished.