The Importance of Proper Battery Disposal

Looking To Dispose Your Batteries?

While AA and AAA batteries are becoming less common in our households and we hardly think about them, it’s still important that all battery disposal gets completed correctly. Of course, it’s not just these batteries that need to be recycled or effectively disposed of, and luckily there is one place in Adelaide that has the tools for every kind of battery disposal imaginable.

You might not know that battery disposal isn’t as easy as just throwing them into your bin at home. It’s not at all ideal for batteries to end up in our litter cycle as there are several keys and demonstrable environmental benefits that can be enjoyed by recycling or correct battery disposal.

The team at Metro Waste can take all of your unwanted batteries, including car batteries. They will ensure complete and correct battery disposal protocol gets followed. If you need to make a battery disposal visit then come and see us at our waste facility in Thebarton and know that you are doing your part in keeping contaminants out of our trash cycle.

What Is Correct Battery Disposal?

Metro Waste operates a state of the art transfer station that sorts waste and sends them to the most relevant facility so that critical components of the material can be recovered, recycled and repurposed. Correct battery disposal involves separating them from the rubbish stream and ensuring that they reach a destination astute in handling and reusing them.

Old batteries contain materials that can be harmful to soil and wildlife such as cadmium, mercury and lead. When left in landfills, these chemicals can seep into the ground and surrounding atmosphere and cause environmental damage, further highlighting the importance of correct battery disposal.

As well as making sure batteries aren’t involved in our general waste cycle, there are also valuable elements that can be extracted and recycled from them. Metals such as zinc and magnesium are outstanding resources to recycle and are recoverable only from correct battery disposal.

The Statistics on Battery Disposal

A study conducted in 2010 by the Australian Battery Recycling Initiative estimated that around 345 million handheld batteries (weighing less than 1kg) end in the landfill each year. These statistics include cells found in small handheld devices such as mobile phones.

The study continued to state that only around 5% of these batteries get recycled and that most end up distributed throughout landfills and the rest end up out of use or informally stockpiled in peoples homes.

When it comes to automotive batteries in Australia, we consume approximately 6 million each year, and around 87% get recycled responsibly. The statistics on automotive batteries are promising, but there is still more we can do to ensure that the finite materials we can recover from correct battery disposal get harvested.

Make sure to bring all of your batteries down to the team at Metro Waste and do your part in keeping our environment healthy!