Electronic – What’s the best method to responsibly dispose of used alkaline batteries

batteries

Years ago, I would have typically tossed typical, Alkaline batteries in the trash. I have been reading more and more on this topic, and while I see that rechargeable batteries should be recycled, I'm finding conflicting evidence on how best to dispose of Alkaline batteries.

For example, Duracell claims that since they removed the mercury from batteries, they're safe for disposal. But others claim (see Disqus comments at the bottom) that since all batteries contain various kinds of heavy heavy metals and should thus be recycled.

Best Answer

In the UK (and most, if not all, of the EU):

  • some supermarkets have recycling bins for small batteries.

  • Every community has a household waste recycling centre with containers for old batteries (including both lead-acid car batteries and small appliance batteries like AA batteries).

EU Directive 206/66/EC says

In order to protect the environment, waste batteries and accumulators should be collected. For portable batteries and accumulators, collection schemes achieving a high collection rate should be established. This means setting up collection schemes so that end-users can discard all waste portable batteries and accumulators conveniently and free of charge

Related Topic