Battery recycling: Why you should recycle your alkaline batteries

Most batteries are meant to be disposable. Popular AAA, AA, and 9V batteries, for example, are readily available virtually everywhere. But what happens when their power is exhausted? At best, consumers store them for a year until an annual battery collection event. At worst (and far more commonly) consumers simply toss them in the trash.

That is unfortunate, because alkaline and other batteries discarded in landfills may leak components that could find their way into soil or groundwater. When discarded in the trash they represent a significant threat to the environment. Better Battery Co. offers a better solution: Subscribe to our service, and we’ll make sure you always have the batteries you need on hand. And we’ll make it easy for you to recycle them when they are spent.

Step 1: Disposing of Batteries

Recycled batteries from BBCo. are designed from start to finish to be handy, useful, and readily recyclable. We have partnered with Raw Materials Company to ensure your used batteries will be recycled into surprisingly useful materials; conceivably ranging from crop fertilizers to road building materials.

We ship your batteries in a handy box that helps you keep batteries organized. Just remove a battery, use it, then reinsert it into its slot — upside down — until your box is full of used batteries. Slip it into our convenient poly mailer sleeve, print your free shipping label, then ship your spent batteries to our recycling partner, Raw Materials Company.

Ordinary batteries are destined for landfills. In some cases, you can collect, and store these items, then locate a recycling center and drive there to drop them off. If you choose the (far easier) route, you will probably elect to throw spent batteries in the trash. Which means they will inevitably end up in a landfill somewhere.

Step 2: Breaking Down the Batteries

Recycled batteries: At Raw Materials Company, all batteries are first sorted into types. When they receive your box of spent alkaline batteries, this step will already have been completed for them. This helps ensure the process is accurate and efficient. The recyclers will then break down your batteries into their constituent components, including plastic, zinc, steel and other components.

Ordinary batteries: In contrast, batteries in landfill simply get dumped with other trash. They quickly begin to break down, due to damage to casings, or simple rusting of components. This allows their contents to leak, potentially contaminating groundwater with toxic heavy metals. Even if they do not leak, their components will never be reused, nor their carbon costs offset.

Step 3: Carbon Offset of Production and Shipping

Recycled Batteries: Recycling batteries is already tremendously helpful for our environment. But did you know that there are additional issues with battery use that recycling won’t use? Take the carbon emissions from producing and shipping around batteries, for example. Tonnes of carbon are emitted into the atmosphere each year from this process.

This is why we purchase carbon offset credits to counteract any emissions involved in the production and transportation of your batteries. Our team performed an extensive Life Cycle Assessment to ensure we can help you offset your carbon footprint and help the world breathe a little easier.

Ordinary batteries: When it comes to non-recycled batteries, it is a given that most brands do not account for their product’s life cycle, nor do they offset the pollution created through the production, use, and disposal of their batteries. This means that the tonnes of carbon generated in mining, assembly, shipping, and disposal compile in our atmosphere for years to come.

Bottom Line: You Can and Should Recycle Your Batteries

There is no reason not to recycle now that Better Battery Co. has engineered the perfect solution to this problem. Ready to power your world with positivity?