Batting for the safe disposal of used batteries

You must have tons of them lying around or stashed away somewhere. No doubt about it, batteries make a significant contribution to our mounting piles of garbage at home and in the workplace. What to do with them? First, here’s what not to do with them: Do not throw spent batteries in the regular trash.

That friendly advice comes from a public interest environmental network campaigning for chemical safety to discourage consumers from mixing spent batteries, especially miniature button cell batteries that contain mercury and other toxic metals, with usual household discards.

By batteries here, we mean big, medium, small, and teeny-weeny, like those lightweight and silver-colored button cell batteries shaped like a button or a coin that are commonly found in wrist watches (which you probably have a collection of), pocket calculators, hearing aids, pacemakers, bicycle speedometers, cameras, children’s toys and games, and other portable electronic devices. Those with added mercury, such as alkaline manganese, silver oxide, zinc-air, and mercuric oxide, can contain as much as five to 25 milligrams of the toxic metal.

Thony Dizon, coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition’s Project PROTECT (People Responding and Organizing against Toxic Chemical Threats), stresses, “By ensuring that spent batteries are separated from typical discards and managed separately and safely as required by law, we prevent these hazardous materials from being thrown or burned in dumpsites and thus avoid mercury from being released into the environment.”

You’re in for an unpleasant surprise., so warns Dr. Joe DiGangi, policy adviser of the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN). “Sometimes bad things come in small packages. Mercury button batteries look small, but their toxic cargo can irreversibly damage the brain. Their toxic content has captured the attention of the world as global mercury treaty negotiations move forward to eliminate all human sources of mercury.”

A mini-survey recently confirmed that spent batteries that potentially contain mercury and other toxic substances were commonly disposed as if these were nothing but harmless regular wastes (admit it, a lot of us are guilty of this). Extremely alarmed by this, EcoWaste Coalition, a pollution watchdog, has warned the public against the toxic threat from improper battery disposal.

EcoWaste Coalition sounded the alarm via its AlerToxic Patrol, held from June 21 to 23. The timely campaign, which involved watch stores and repair shops in Metro Manila, showed that spent button cell batteries were generally thrown into regular waste bins, which in turn were hauled away to the dumpsites.

The watch stores and repair shops are located in Binondo, Sta. Cruz, Quiapo, and Sampaloc in Manila, and in the commercial hubs of the cities of Caloocan, Makati, Malabon, Navotas, Pasay, Quezon, and Taguig, in the municipality of Pateros as well as in Angono and Cainta, Rizal.

Guess what the people from EcoWaste found? Of the 70 watch stores and repair shops surveyed, most confessed to tossing spent batteries into the bin. However, silver oxide batteries are often kept and sold to recyclers for as much as P350 per camera film canister. Yes, there’s cash in trash. It is not known under what conditions the silver-containing discarded batteries are recycled.

All shops that EcoWaste visited do offer non-mercury button cell batteries such as lithium batteries. But consumers have to watch out for fake items that are sold at cheap prices. Alkaline button cell batteries are also available, but we don’t know if these are mercury-free due to insufficient product information (or the lack of it).

This eco-advisory is part of EcoWaste’s mission to create public awareness on the health and environmental hazards of mercury-added products, promote mercury-free alternatives, and drum up support for the environmentally-sound management of mercury-containing waste.

With mercury all around us, EcoWaste Coalition has also alerted the public on the unregulated disposal and recycling of spent compact, linear, and circular fluorescent lamps containing mercury, a toxic metal that can damage the brain and the nervous system, and can bio-accumulate in fish and other marine species.

So, what can we do to protect ourselves from this modern-day threat? EcoWaste shares with consumers these top 10 tips on how to reduce mercury pollution and human exposure to improper battery disposal:

1. Go for button cell batteries that are mercury-free such as lithium.  Some mercury-free batteries will have the “0% Hg Cell” mark.

2. Read carefully the product safety precautions and instructions.

3. Keep batteries out of children’s reach as they pose a choking hazard.

4. Put spent batteries in a sealed childproof container to prevent accidental ingestion.

5. If swallowed, promptly see a physician.

6. Label the container with “Toxic: Batteries with mercury” and keep in a cool, well-ventilated dry place for temporary storage.

7. Do not handle corroded batteries with bare hands.  Use rubber gloves.

8. Do not throw spent batteries in the regular trash.

9. Do not burn mercury-containing waste as the mercury will vaporize and pollute the air.

10. Do not dump spent button cell batteries to prevent the discharge of mercury into the air, water, and soil.

Never running out of energy (or running on low battery), EcoWaste aims to fully address the problem of battery waste disposal by urging the battery industry to switch to clean production and to put in place take-back systems for their products at the end of their useful lives.

No ifs and batts about it.

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