Recycle your batteries!!

[battplus]

Wow, good price for quality! Nice tip on the rechargeables too, not only saving money, but keeping people from wasting alkalines when they just throw them in the trash. Good thing is recycling drop offs take the small common sized rechargeables, some won't take alkalines now. They claim they are "safer for landfills", I guess mercury, and other toxic metals are safe now!

 

[NoobySWkeeper]

The guy was probaly havin a bad day, he was just like, [profanity] it im gonna screw up the reefs and cause hazards everywhere because I had a bad day!

 

[battplus]

Pretty much, I agree it's mainly just laziness and having to pay to remove or dispose of them. All it takes is one call to recycling centers and they will assist or help you find a method for disposal, just takes a little extra effort.

 

[saltn07]

People dont know what they have til its gone, or until they destroy it...

 

[Nemo8710]

I def didnt knwo wthat Verizon reclycled batteries , That is very good to know. Liek teh other guy said, They get plenty of money from so the least teh coudl do it recycle my battery

 

[battplus]

I def didnt knwo wthat Verizon reclycled batteries , That is very good to know. Liek teh other guy said, They get plenty of money from so the least teh coudl do it recycle my battery

Nemo8710,

You must be on that Verizon phone with this post!

Anyway, with the economy the way it is, it definately helps to continue to do the little things! It seems that everyone still needs a cell phone and with the new phones having built in batteries, it helps to save your money and not have to buy a new battery every year like the old phones. I'm sure it has got to be helping in all aspects. Imagine less batteries to have to buy, in turn less packaging and less of those stupid little cell phone accessory kiosks trying to sell you useless plastic junk that's going to end up getting thrown out anyway.

 

[merkurmaniac]

Speaking of reduce, re-use, recycle... You know what gets me ??

At home depot, they recycle the pigtail fluorescents, actually probably most kinds. "here, put in it that box there...Oh, and it needs to be in a PLASTIC bag."

Huh ? Its almost like an insult that you are recycling a light bulb, and they want you to waste a plastic bag to do it. Last time, I reached in and grabbed the nearest bag, and added my bulbs to it.

I shun plastic at every turn. I buy drinks in 2 liter bottles, but every one of them gets recycled after it gets processed by my dog. She chews the caps off after I crank them on as tight as possible. When at Walmart buying my soda, I tell them to use as few bags as possible, and none for the bottles. They go from cart to car and from car to work (in a card board box.) Much less to throw away. SOmetimes I feel like a guy who doesn't believe in the technical innovation called the bag. heh heh.

 

[coketech]

It is so true tho, people just go mad on bags and throwaway items.
Here in New Zealand customers in supermarkets get charged 5cents for each bag they want to use and it has seen a huge drop in plastic bag waste, all because something that was 'free' now has value!

 

[macktab]

Seems it is better to use rechargebles (more heavy metals) and dispose of (eventually) through a recycling program. But additional recharger plastics/mining is a result.

Here is an interesting article link
http://geology.com/articles/rare-earth-elements/

 

[battplus]

Great link, excellent reading info on this topic.

 

[Robka]

It is so true tho, people just go mad on bags and throwaway items.
Here in New Zealand customers in supermarkets get charged 5cents for each bag they want to use and it has seen a huge drop in plastic bag waste, all because something that was 'free' now has value!

I have visited your beautiful country and wish the USA was as progressive, but we are trying. I heard that Washington D.C. started charging for plastic bags and they have seen a 70% + drop in the use of them:thumbsup:

 

[speakerguy]

Is there a place to recycle/dispose of non-rechargeable batteries? You know, the regular ones.

There is no need to recycle standard alkaline batteries. Toxic heavy metals were eliminated from their manufacture in the mid 1990's (the primary element of concern was mercury). The technology does not currently exist to make recycling alkaline batteries cost-effective. As a result fewer places are accepting them and most any place that does take them ends up throwing them away on their own. From the Duracell website:

Alkaline batteries can be safely disposed of with normal household waste. Due to concerns about mercury in the municipal solid waste stream, Duracell has voluntarily eliminated all of the added mercury from its alkaline batteries since 1993 — while maintaining the performance you demand. Our alkaline batteries are composed primarily of common metals — steel, zinc and manganese — and do not pose a health or environmental risk during normal use or disposal.

And from the Energizer website:

Most everyday use batteries are alkaline and lithium, which in most states can be disposed of via your normal waste management process. This is possible because many years ago Energizer led the industry in eliminating heavy metals, such as mercury, from our products. Therefore, these products don’t contain any hazardous materials, as classified under federal EPA guidelines.

Still, they do end up taking up space in landfills, so switching to low-self discharge rechargable nickel metal hydride batteries like the Sanyo Eneloops are a good idea.

 

[Danzig]

The consumer is powerful, but haven't you ever heard of corporate welfare? The government DOES have a huge hand in the availability of "eco-friendly" products.
Just ask anyone running a mom and pop business when Wal-mart was PAID BY THE US GOVT to open up, and then paid AGAIN to undercut all the competition.
We're the ones losing- The freedom of the consumer is only as good as his options to consume.

wow interesting. good thing i dont shop at walmart, the freaks and weird looking people pretty much keep me from going back, but this is an even better reason.

 

[larrypoe]

funny how the pot calls the kettle black :/.......for every person who thinks a tree shouldnt be cut down theres another that thinks that rock, fish, or sand in your tank should have been left in the ocean

for every save the whale or save the owl theres makes there living fishing the seas or running a sawmill.

the PETA nut job who screams for more donations to save the kitty, kills more animals in a year than a hunter does in his lifetime.

the fur is murder whack jobs carry a sign made from cut down a trees, while wearing a leather belt or shoes

 

[sawcreatives]

The original picture is not showing up for me?

 

[xtinataguba]

this is sad. we should be responsible in throwing our batteries, and right there's a recycling center for that. by not disposing it in a proper place can harm our environment, maybe we can't see the harmful effects right now, but in the future? we should think about it.

 

[benjamindodson]

yeah! Let's help protect the environment in our own little ways. Everything is possible with a little creativity!

 

[NewOne81]

Holy continual post resurrection batman

 

[NewOne81]

Just noticed this was a sticky, as i was, carry on.

 

[Innovation]

Great thread, a lot of very interesting information. One thing I notice a trend in is the emotional part of us destroying this planet. People get sad and feel sorry for ourselves like it's too late, we need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves! If we took the effort we put into feeling sad and helpless into actively solving problems the reversing effects on this problem would be 100x stronger! I think we should start with our hobby, CB livestock is a great start, Gulf Coast Ecosystems has done a great job supplying macroalgae, even though they collect from the wild. But since it is on a relatively small scale it's not a large issue. Just today I found out that Paul Watson is also after the marine aquarium trade, and much of the information that is posted on there website is false. Such as:

In captivity, some yellow tangs may survive a year or more, but the vast majority will likely be killed off within the first month or two of capture from shipping and other stressors, starvation and hobbyist mistakes.

or:

In hobby tanks, most wildlife will die within weeks or months from stress related disease; from cramped or failed environments; from improper food; and, generally because the vast majority of those attempting to keep them are too inexperienced.

This last quote especially irritates me, as that is nowhere near true. If they actually looked at what many members of this hobby are doing, they would realize that we are very likely the ones who are going to save reefs. We keep exotic fish from across the globe, and the rate of new species being bred is rapidly increasing. Once someone does it on a large scale, we can easily propagate almost any species and "restock a reef", so to speak.

--

I don't know about any of you, but I use every plastic container I find for something. I use water and soda bottles for brine shrimp hatching, cleaned out milk jugs to store de-chlorinated RO/DI water, and I've even used plastic water bottles filled with water as eco friendly light bulbs. I also use re-usable bags at stores, rather than ask for "paper or plastic". I've built several rafts out of water bottles (that worked somewhat well I might add!) and on top of that all, I use organic gardening supplies, natural pesticides, I eat organically, and I am close to feeding my fish and coral organically as well.

On another note, San Francisco is close to banning plastic water bottles!