Battery recycling - News

Tools of the Trade, Nov-Dec, 2003 by Mark Clement

Recycling your cordless tool, phone, laptop, and any other rechargeable batteries just got easier. While you can still collect and mail them in as you might have done before, now you can take your spent batteries to national retailers for drop off as they wear out; The Home Depot, Sears. Staples, and some tool repair centers (see complete list below) now accept both tool and electronics batteries. This effort keeps huge numbers of batteries out of landfills where the millions of pounds of chemicals in them can be harmful to the environment.

The effort is made possible by the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp. (RBRC), an organization that has partnered with the industry to get rechargeable batteries out of the waste stream. In the first six months of 2003 alone. RBRC collected 2 million pounds of rechargeable batteries (an increase of 30 percent). RBRC estimates that 10 to 15 percent of this tonnage is cordless tool batteries.

Participating Retailers:

Alltel

Batteries Plus

Best Buy

Black & Decker

Cingular Wireless

Circuit City

The Home Depot

Milwaukee Electric Tool

Porter-Cable Service Centers

RadioShack

Remington Product Co.

Sears/Orchard Supply

Staples

Target

US Cellular

Verizon Wireless

Wal-Mart

Wireless Zone

To find nearby battery drop-off locations, visit www.rbrc.org or call 1-800-822-8837.--M.C.