[HN Gopher] Lithium-ion batteries a growing fire hazard in NYC g...
___________________________________________________________________
Lithium-ion batteries a growing fire hazard in NYC garbage trucks
Author : pseudolus
Score : 95 points
Date : 2023-05-01 12:52 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (gothamist.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (gothamist.com)
| 1-6 wrote:
| Talk about dumpster fires. In all seriousness, though. it should
| be relatively easy to find who's responsible for the fire. Fines
| prevent that trend from getting out of hand.
| mc32 wrote:
| How? Anyone can dump batteries in anyone's curbside bin. Also
| in apartment complexes bins contain everyone's refuse.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _in apartment complexes bins contain everyone's refuse_
|
| This is a solved problem. Sanitation fines the building.
| Building deals with the problem internally.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| I'm not actually clear how the building would deal with the
| problem either! Everyone's trash goes down one garbage
| chute. I'm not sure exactly how many units are in my
| building, but some quick math makes me think it's well over
| 100.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _not actually clear how the building would deal with
| the problem either_
|
| Every New Yorker is familiar with buildings putting up
| signs admonishing residents for not properly separating
| their recycling. If it's a recurring problem, the super
| will inspect it before putting it out.
|
| The bigger issue is we don't have an easy way to detect
| batteries in trash before they've taken out a truck. So
| this discussion is largely hypothetical.
| mc32 wrote:
| That's problematic. The ash and rubbish containers are
| often accessible from the street. Now they would fine a
| complex because it has insufficient surveillance?
|
| I don't think there is an easy solution to this other than
| requiring battery mfgs to make safer batteries and consumer
| education.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _they would fine a complex because it has insufficient
| surveillance_
|
| This is the _status quo_ with trash and recycling in New
| York [1]. It looks like there is already a schedule for
| rechargeable battery disposal.
|
| [1] https://www.nyc.gov/html/ecb/downloads/pdf/Sanitation
| Penalty...
| mc32 wrote:
| I can see where half of those fines are rarely enforced.
| I don't see this as having viable enforcement. I think
| the main solutions are educational (make it easy to
| properly dispose batteries) and making the batteries
| safer.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _can see where half of those fines are rarely enforced_
|
| The efficient amount of enforcement is difficult to
| estimate. For recycling, at least, it works well enough.
| I imagine jacking up fines and increasing spot
| enforcement should be enough to motivate upstream
| behavior in the buildings, _e.g._ posting signs or
| deploying a separate bin.
| asah wrote:
| large apartment buildings are common in nyc and they combine
| trash from many units, making it impractical.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| > it should be relatively easy to find who's responsible for
| the fire
|
| How is it easy? The fire can start long after the batteries are
| introduced into the trucks. Here in Norway they're a major
| cause of fires at the facilities handling the garbage[1].
|
| [1]: https://www.nrk.no/tromsogfinnmark/228-branner-i-norske-
| avfa...
| [deleted]
| morninglight wrote:
| Battery powered Lawnmowers.
|
| It is amazing to see the intense marketing directed to
| rechargeable mowers. Well over half the mower display space in
| many large home improvement stores.
|
| It is going to be interesting to see if these create a fire
| hazard in the suburbs. Don't let your fire insurance lapse.
| asah wrote:
| sigh, solution is probably additional fireproofing for garbage
| trucks <== sadly, I'm serious because deterrence is impractical.
| chewbacha wrote:
| Perhaps we need hazardous collection bins just for this. I have
| a collection of spent batteries that I need to dispose of but
| it's been inconvenient enough that I haven't brought them to a
| collection center yet.
| Saris wrote:
| It is difficult to figure out what to do with old Li-ion
| batteries, some local stores accept certain types for recycling,
| but I have a few larger batteries from ebikes and power tools
| that they won't take, and I can't figure out what to do with
| them.
|
| For now they just sit in the garage.
|
| I would like to see some kind of system where the cost of
| recycling is paid up-front when the battery is purchased, and
| there are easy to find locations to drop them off, or to mail
| them for smaller ones.
| Symbiote wrote:
| That's more or less what we have in the EU, although the
| implementation varies between countries.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Electrical_and_Electroni...
|
| In Denmark there are electronic waste bins in apartment
| buildings (with the usual recycling bins), and placed somewhere
| around the neighbourhood for houses. There's also a steel
| cupboard for hazardous waste.
|
| I notice there's a limit of 500g for batteries, so large ones
| should be taken to the neighbourhood recycling centre or a
| place that sells them.
| acd wrote:
| Thats a smart system. In Sweden and other countries there is
| pant, pantamera "container deposit system" you recycle
| aluminium cans in the store. One reason it takes a lot of
| energy to melt aluminium which you use to make aluminium cans.
|
| You should get money back when recycling electronics so there
| is an economic incentive todo recycling.
| whatever1 wrote:
| At the very minimum we should mandate the stores that sell
| products that include batteries to have collection points for
| the products and their batteries.
|
| I bought a power bank from Best Buy that was recalled, and when
| I tried to return it for disposal, I was told to look for local
| recycling companies.
| detaro wrote:
| That's how it is implemented in Germany: If you sell
| batteries or battery-containing devices, you have to take
| batteries in for recycling. (Now I wouldn't necessarily
| expect every tiny corner store that sells single-use vapes to
| do a proper job of that, but normal store chains will do so)
| withinrafael wrote:
| Just throwing out there, Apple accepts their own batteries in any
| condition. I showed up to one of their stores with a friend's
| swollen (spicy pillow) old MacBook battery in a metal trash can
| and they put on hazmat gear, came outside the store, and took
| care of it. They curiously also have you sign some paperwork
| stating you're not getting the battery back.
|
| I'm not an Apple hardware user or fan but I was pretty impressed
| with how professionally they took care of that.
| calvinmorrison wrote:
| the reason people dump batteries is because doing so the proper
| way is often onerous. In my parents locale, you have to contact
| the sanitation department ahead of time, arrange a drop off time,
| head to the place, provide ID (to confirm you're not from
| somewhere else?) , etc. A lot easier to just throw it in the
| trash.
| sirsinsalot wrote:
| In the UK every Tesco supermarket (at least) has a battery
| disposal box. I never see it used.
|
| I'm not sure even ready access to disposal works.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _because doing so the proper way is often onerous_
|
| Or badly publicized. The Goodwill around the corner is a
| designated battery drop-off site. You would never know it
| without specifically looking that up.
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| If you could just throw "Battery recycling" into Apple/Google
| Maps or OpenStreetMap (which has Tag:amenity=recycling and
| recycling:batteries for the purpose), I think you'd get a lot
| of these issues resolved. None of these offer reasonable
| results when I look this up near me.
|
| People know they're supposed to recycle batteries. My old
| employer had a bin of dead cell phones, laptop batteries, and
| power tool batteries (and people kept throwing in alkalines);
| my parents inexplicably had a cardboard box fire hazard for a
| similar purpose but don't know where to bring them.
|
| One tool that does this is
| https://www.call2recycle.org/locator/ (they might get would
| get better coverage in some demographics with "text2recycle"
| or "websearch2recycle" domains). Why the data isn't in the
| tools people typically use to find this information, I don't
| know - it seems to be a political rather than technical
| problem.
|
| There's a Lowes, Home Depot, Comprenew, Goodwill, and
| sanitary transfer station that all take these batteries for
| free with a minimum of fuss, and are all within 5 miles of
| both of the aforementioned boxes of spicy pillows. But you
| have to know that to use them.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _If you could just throw "Battery recycling" into
| Apple/Google Maps or OpenStreetMap (which has
| Tag:amenity=recycling and recycling:batteries for the
| purpose), I think you'd get a lot of these issues resolved.
| None of these offer reasonable results when I look this up
| near me_
|
| This is a great idea.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Also removing batteries is often impossible, e.g. smoke
| detectors that have them soldered in.
|
| All you need to solve this issue is:
|
| 1. All batteries must be easily removable with no screws
| (except for toys).
|
| 2. All supermarkets must accept waste batteries of any form.
| pwg wrote:
| > the reason people dump batteries is because doing so the
| proper way is often onerous.
|
| Another likely reason, and likely the biggest one as well, is:
| how many folks, outside of the HN/techie crowd, are even aware
| of what "kind" of battery is in their various devices and is
| even aware that there are special rules for many battery types?
|
| Yes, the user guides (if one is even provided) do often have a
| page about "do not throw in the trash" -- but how many actually
| read the guides, much less the "warnings" page? And, more
| importantly, how many even know where the guide is at the end-
| of-life for the device when they are throwing it away in order
| to look up what special handling is needed?
|
| Yes, there's the trashcan with the slash icon on the back of
| the device. How many of the non-HN/techie crowd even know what
| that icon means to register enough that there is something
| 'different' about this item vs. everything else they throw
| away? And, how many even think to look on the back vs. just
| tossing the device in a trash bin?
| serf wrote:
| > how many folks, outside of the HN/techie crowd, are even
| aware of what "kind" of battery is in their various devices
| and is even aware that there are special rules for many
| battery types?
|
| why do they bother needing to know? If it has a battery :
| "Right this way!" .
|
| and more specifically -- nearly every 'high-tech' device of
| any kind has a battery that requires precaution during the
| post-consumer phase -- is it even worth distinguishing what
| kind of battery goes where at this point for the consumer,
| aside from an allowed luxury of chucking something carelessly
| into the trash?
| mdip wrote:
| A related problem just hit me this weekend. I had removed a
| failed/bulged Lithium Ion battery from a week ago and placed it
| with my others to be taken during the one time a year that
| garbage collection allows us to bring the toxic stuff to them for
| recycling (later this year...).
|
| Fast forward to this week and the battery is nearly twice its
| size. A while back I decided to repair a bunch of failed Ryobi
| Li-Ion packs (taking them apart, testing the 18650 cells
| independently and rebuilding each with all new cells of the same
| specifications)[0]. I'd done this several times over the years
| with various battery packs made up of 18650 cells[1].
|
| While basically ignoring all of the intelligent warnings for
| handling/dealing with these cells[0], I managed to short one of
| the _visibly_ bad cells for long enough to turn the battery into
| what might be a very respectable, completely out of control, blow
| torch.
|
| The heat from the flame caused me to immediately drop it and
| everything I was holding but despite being in my hand for all of
| maybe 10 milliseconds, it managed to leave a permanent scar
| (which serves as a reminder for me every time I decide I'm going
| to risk my limbs to save a few bucks to ... at least ... be a
| whole hell of a lot more careful).
|
| My question is: what in the hell do I do with this expanding
| pouch battery? I can't take it to the "toxic waste day" event
| until the fall. I know these pouch batteries are as prone to
| torching as much as the 18650 cells and this one is growing so
| fast that it was noticeable.
|
| Are there any options beyond: (a) Toss it in one of the
| "Electronics Recycling" boxes at a big box store (are those still
| a thing?) -- I am concerned for the safety of the staff/store.
| (b) Same but get one of those "mail away" bags -- I would _never_
| do this; trading a garbage truck fire for a mail truck fire isn
| 't an improvement and I'm sure it's as illegal as: (c) Hide it in
| the garbage and hope for the best -- see the article and "b" for
| why I won't do this, either. And finally, the only option my
| garbage carrier gives me: (d) Find some magical way to store this
| thing until the fall when my garbage carrier will let me drive it
| to their facility for Toxic Stuff Day. By then it'll be in a box
| of melted goo.
|
| For the moment, I went with (d) and placed it inside of a
| container from a kiln I hacked together a few years ago ... which
| sits in the center of the cement floor of my shed[2].
|
| I don't like any of these options -- anyone else been in a
| similar spot and found a good solution?
|
| [0] I am not a battery guy or an electrical engineer, just a
| typical hacker with the driving force being: "What could possibly
| go wrong?"
|
| [1] Pretty much every notebook from that era (gifted to me as
| "I'm just going to throw this out, do you want it?) had
| detachable packs made up of combinations of 18650 cells wired
| together.
|
| [2] I learned I built this pretty well after it took a real world
| test with some mixed molten metals and other materials that left
| the entire interior covered in a layer of black "something" but
| did no damage otherwise.
| r2_pilot wrote:
| I believe one way to safely discharge LiPo batteries to render
| them safe for regular garbage disposal is to fully submerge
| them in a saturated saltwater solution for more than 24 hours
| until the cell is fully discharged(some lipo chargers also have
| a discharge feature). You may still be required to separate
| them from household waste depending on local regulations, but
| it shouldn't combust once the voltage is 0.
| itslennysfault wrote:
| Random gripe, but it's weird they used a picture of a charger and
| not a battery for the article.
| MSFT_Edging wrote:
| I think that's due to several charging related incidents in
| apartments with bigger e-bike batteries.
| [deleted]
| walthamstow wrote:
| Expecting this to happen in London this summer, in dustbin vans
| (garbage trucks) and in public bins e.g. in city parks. Lithium
| batteries from disposable nicotine vapes (elf bar is one brand)
| are absolutely everywhere and have been since the autumn.
| blairbeckwith wrote:
| I largely quit vaping right before the rise of disposable vape
| pens and it is mindblowing to me that they were allowed - by
| any group including the manufacturers, governments, even
| consumers - to become a thing. They seem from the outside to be
| significantly more expensive to produce, tons more e-waste, and
| not much more convenient than pod systems.
| abawany wrote:
| bigclivedotcom had a video on yt where he started collecting
| these disposable vapes off the street and salvaging the
| batteries for his projects. It was sad to see that so many of
| these 'disposable' products are thrown away by many without
| any care.
|
| Edit: example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7XB6D7q92g
| malchow wrote:
| For those who haven't seen it, worth looking at BrakeFlow, a
| feature of the new Si-anode Enovix batteries.
|
| Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8eSEoOy8JY
| thechao wrote:
| I feel like a general-purpose law of the form: "if you sell it,
| you must recycle it" would nip a lot of this crap in the bud. For
| instance: my local paint store will happily sell you
| barrel's-full of paint that is then well-nigh impossible for me
| to dispose of; same for gas, batteries, plastic bags, ...
| robotnikman wrote:
| How would this work for online retailers like Amazon? I feel
| like a big chunk of lithium batteries comes from there.
| lucb1e wrote:
| I don't understand the question. Proposal: if you sell it,
| you must recycle it. Question: how would an online shop do
| this? Obvious answer: by accepting the to-be-recycled
| product, just like an offline store? Whether they do the
| actual recycling themselves or contract a third party is up
| to them of course, but that's the same with any local kiosk
| that happens to sell batteries.
|
| (Not saying I think it's a good or bad proposal btw. It
| sounds good, but there's going to be uncountable cases where
| the original retailer does not exist anymore, or you don't
| know where you bought something, or you've moved, etc.
| Whether to just accept that and consider it a net win, or if
| a deposit system would work better, no idea. I just don't see
| the problem with online stores having to accept goods they
| sold for recycling.)
| Clamchop wrote:
| I've long thought that the cost of proper disposal for all
| products should be paid for at the time of manufacture as a tax
| and built into the price, and then sanitation services are paid
| for out of this fund ahead of time.
|
| We need everything to be disposed of properly, whoever that
| responsibility ultimately falls to, so it's unfortunate that we
| charge consumers at the end of the line for disposal. It's
| leaky and creates a perverse incentive for pollution, dumping,
| trash burning, etc.
|
| And products that are harder to recycle or dispose of would
| cost more than cleaner alternatives, creating gentle economic
| pressure to produce and buy more sustainable goods.
|
| Right now, we might not even have a plan for proper disposal
| before something is sold. This seems to have happened with
| electronics.
| thechao wrote:
| I like this, too, but I think it's hard to find out what the
| clearing-cost for the market is top-down. Especially for
| things "like recycling". Instead, I'd just make it a market
| problem. The point is to find a good balance between
| regulation ("recycling costs this much") and natural market
| conditions ("fuck it! throw it in the ocean!").
| linkjuice4all wrote:
| A deposit refund [0] similar to what's already in place for
| bottles and cans in some states might be the way to go if
| enough states/counties would actually implement it.
|
| It allows for consumers to consider the "full cost" of being
| inconsiderate and not recycling properly while not "actually"
| increasing the cost of the product if they properly dispose of
| it. It also created a secondary market for scrapers/recyclers
| to collect and deposit items so there's another chance it won't
| enter the waste steam.
|
| [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit-refund_system
| unregistereddev wrote:
| The deposit refund system also needs to be worth the effort.
| My state has a $0.05 deposit on bottles and cans. I used to
| save the original packaging, put the empties back in the box,
| and take the boxes to the the customer service counter at the
| grocery store. It was worth it for a little pocket change.
|
| Now? It's all mechanized. I have to feed cans one by one into
| a machine that reads the barcode to be sure it is a product
| the store sells. Different machines accept cans vs bottles.
| This is a slow process. You often need to wait in line for
| each machine. Sometimes the machines are broken, or sometimes
| even a working machine fails to read the barcode and rejects
| 10% of your cans or bottles. When you are done, you take
| printed slips from the machines to customer service and wait
| in line to exchange them for cash.
|
| It's not worth it. I still recycle, but I toss cans and
| bottles into my recycling bin and forgo the deposit.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Just have to get sufficiently advanced machine.
|
| I love that my nearby store has one of these:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4n62Okcf50
|
| Takes plastic and aluminium cans. Just empty a sackful
| inside and it automatically sorts them for you. Takes about
| 5 minutes for some 120l+.
| olyjohn wrote:
| Back when I lived in Oregon, they just paid some kid
| minimum wage to sort it. Those guys were fast at sorting
| too. They could get through 2 or 3 30 gallon bags in just
| a few minutes.
| rcme wrote:
| Does your town not offer hazardous waste disposal?
| mkmk wrote:
| The FDNY is on a tear against e-bike batteries this year, after
| numerous fires and several deaths attributed to lithium-ion
| battery charging. Several charging locations have been shut down,
| and commercial landlords are required to post warnings/many have
| banned ebikes from their buildings entirely.
|
| https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/e-bike-batteries-blame...
| tpmx wrote:
| "25 fires that caused 36 injuries and two deaths" during
| jan/feb 2023 alone.
| toss1 wrote:
| Nice idea of the FDNY.
|
| Now, FDNY and sanitation need to do something ACTUALLY ADEQUATE
| to solve the problem.
|
| IOW, they must make it _CONVENIENT_ to properly dispose of
| batteries
|
| >>introduced a bill to require the sanitation department to
| develop a plan for educating New Yorkers about the proper
| disposal of these batteries, including holding regular disposal
| events.
|
| >>The city has a dedicated hazardous waste disposal site in
| each borough -- but the hours of operation for these sites are
| limited.
|
| These measures are a dumb waste of time. Everyone already has a
| list a mile-and-a-half long of things they _should_ do, and
| properly disposing of batteries is already on it. Many of the
| things on everyone 's list never get done.
|
| If they want it done, they need to make it _easy_ to do. Heck,
| just hang some small-ish double-walled steel bins on the trash
| trucks, and ask people to put their batteries next to their
| trans bins instead of inside them. At least that 'll be a start
| until a more permanent solution is designed.
|
| They are a major inconvenience for everyone. Only the most
| conscientious people who have the extra time will do it.
| mdip wrote:
| > The city has a dedicated hazardous waste disposal site in
| each borough -- but the hours of operation for these sites
| are limited.
|
| Where I live, the waste hauler offers a single _day_ per
| _year_ where consumers can take hazardous waste for disposal.
|
| And AFAIK, that's been the case everywhere I've lived since I
| was a child.
| NoZebra120vClip wrote:
| My city offers a big festival day about 4 times per year,
| but these are not exclusive. I think they are more
| expansive where they will accept all kinds of things, even
| clothes, and third-party recyclers are on-site to accept
| and process them.
|
| The actual recycling center is open about 4 days a week and
| accepting a lot of nasty stuff on a regular basis. Thank
| God for that. In-city ID is mandatory.
| thomasjb wrote:
| Perhaps a used battery purchase scheme would be a good solution?
| There is some value to the used batteries, if the city paid a
| premium over that, the problem would most likely decrease
| significantly. By paying more per kilo for the larger batteries
| (which pose the greatest risk of injury), city workers would be
| much safer. The city could even create a market for the recycled
| Lithium by requiring its use in equipment supplied to the city
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| I think that's a great idea but speaking from personal
| experience with family and friends, the biggest obstacle seems
| to be effort. Especially for sufficiently well-off individuals,
| it isn't financial motivation but rather having clear, easily
| accessible, and widely known alternatives that require minimum
| extra effort or travel that would probably do more to alleviate
| situation.
| thomasjb wrote:
| I would like to think that the well off would behave in a
| manner similar to how people in Germany who can't be bothered
| taking their bottles back for pfand do: They leave them
| beside the bin where people who want to can collect them and
| cash them in
| bedast wrote:
| I feel like there's not enough easily accessible information in
| the wild about what you're supposed to do with old electronics,
| and especially batteries. You're not supposed to throw any type
| of battery in the trash, let alone ones that get really angry
| when abused. And places that used to take old batteries seem to
| be refusing them now. I have a small box of old batteries I've
| been looking to dispose of and I'm running out of places to try
| and give them to.
|
| It especially doesn't help that electronics, including with non-
| replaceable batteries, including those that get angry when
| abused, are being designed to be disposable to begin with.
|
| And yeah, I know there's a high level of apathy about the problem
| with the masses. Even though the information can be, for the most
| part, found, people just don't care enough.
| verelo wrote:
| Not only that, but disposal is painful. In my city i have to
| drive to the disposal centre 30-45 mins away on a specific day
| of the month.
|
| So yeah, naturally people don't do that.
| stevehawk wrote:
| same. my local drop off is one day a month at the local
| prison which is ~25 minutes away. and commercial store that
| takes items for recycling is twice that distance.
| travisporter wrote:
| Wow i'm curious why prison?
| shiftpgdn wrote:
| In my city we have these big clothing donation bins in the
| corner of the parking lot at most major strip malls: Example:
| https://patch.com/img/cdn/users/82019/2013/06/raw/d5b3360843.
| ..
|
| With scrap batteries being worth 5-50 cents per pound it
| would be worth just sticking a handful of these, but labeled
| as "used battery drop off point" in high visibility areas. It
| won't stop people from maliciously throwing away batteries
| but would remove the lazy factor.
| NoZebra120vClip wrote:
| I hate to break it to you, but "clothing and shoe donation"
| bins in mall parking lots are generally commercial
| enterprises, rather than non-profits or charities, and I
| suppose people get good feels from dropping off there while
| they're shopping, but the community would be better served
| if you gave direct to a charity such as St. Vincent de Paul
| Society Thrift Stores.
|
| As for scrap batteries being tossed into a bin at a mall,
| I'm not seeing that end well. It is more or less trivial to
| look up recycle facilities in your area and take stuff to
| the appropriate drop-off. Personally, I take eWaste into
| Best Buy or Staples, and my own city government runs a
| large recycling center that will take almost anything.
|
| https://earth911.com/
| LiquidInsect wrote:
| That website lists at least two locations near me that no
| longer exist, and the entries show they were last updated
| over 12 years ago.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| I go to Best Buy or Ikea
| verelo wrote:
| In my case, both are the same distance, but you're right
| their hours are better!
| jackmott42 wrote:
| Best Buy may not take them if the battery is visibly
| damaged. I tried to dispose of a laptop with swelled
| battery and was refused.
| fhub wrote:
| I put all electronic stuff that has no resale value in a box
| and then once a year drop it at an Apple store. I trust Apple
| to do the right thing as they have a reputation to uphold. They
| take 3rd party stuff as well and batteries etc.
| gnramires wrote:
| In Brazil where I live, there are laws requiring battery
| manufacturers to collect (almost all) spent batteries,
| preventing them from getting in landfills. So finding battery
| disposal bins in buildings and so on has become common.
| (classic market failure!)
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| Even if you know you're not supposed to just toss batteries in
| the trash, getting them to a recycling center can be a pain.
| Each borough runs, I believe, a single hazardous items drop off
| day per year -- are people really supposed to hold onto
| batteries for an average of six months?
|
| It turns out that Staples, Lowe's, and Home Depot will
| generally take your batteries for you, but I've never seen this
| advertised anywhere.
| pengaru wrote:
| In San Mateo, CA we were instructed to dispose of batteries by
| simply placing them atop the bin in a clearly labeled plastic
| bag on the usual trash pick-up day.
|
| Recology was the organization handling the recycling IIRC...
|
| Edit: Yep!
|
| https://www.recology.com/recology-san-mateo-county/hazardous...
| quartz wrote:
| In theory every store that sells rechargeable batteries in NYC
| is also supposed to accept them for disposal.
|
| I've found that occasionally true... but as you say for things
| like laptops without removable batteries it feels a little
| weird to just leave them in the piles by the door that many of
| these stores have.
| potatofrenzy wrote:
| I think part of the problem is that the rules are just kinda...
| stupid? There is absolutely no reason why regular alkaline
| batteries can't end up in household garbage. They don't contain
| heavy metals or anything else that'd make them dangerous.
|
| The rules are basically like this because the regulators
| figured you're too dumb to know which types of batteries are
| bad for the environment (lead-acid, the now-obsolete Ni-Cd,
| less significantly NiMH). And sure, better-tailored rules would
| confuse some folks, but I bet that compliance would be higher
| for the really bad stuff.
| whaleofatw2022 wrote:
| Alkaline batteries contain manganese dioxide, which is
| certainly not as bad as the rechargeable types but still is a
| health hazard in enough quantity. "Heavy duty" (zinc-carbon)
| has the same concern AFAIK
| aborochoff wrote:
| At least in nyc alkaline batteries do go in the normal trash.
|
| https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/services/harmful-
| produc...
| joecool1029 wrote:
| > There is absolutely no reason why regular alkaline
| batteries can't end up in household garbage.
|
| Years ago mercury was common in alkalines, they were banned
| in that use case in 1996:
| https://www.epa.gov/mercury/mercury-batteries The collection
| bins that were in my local grocery stores went away within a
| few years of that.
| cptskippy wrote:
| > The rules are basically like this because the regulators
| figured you're too dumb to know which types of batteries are
| bad for the environment
|
| No everyone is as smart as you.
|
| Not everyone cares as much as you.
|
| Not everyone has the time or energy as you.
|
| The rules are designed to solve the problem of hazardous and
| toxic battery chemistries with as little friction as
| possible.
| bcrosby95 wrote:
| Yep, and in my experience they just toss everything in the
| trash anyways.
| flyinghamster wrote:
| Don't even get me started on trying to dispose of long
| fluorescent tubes. I've got an eight-footer I can't get rid of.
| There is absolutely NOBODY that takes them for recycling in my
| area.
| bluedino wrote:
| > Don't even get me started on trying to dispose of long
| fluorescent tubes.
|
| I replaced those in my garage with some LED lights, long
| overdue. I put the light fixtures on the curb a scrapper came
| and picked them up quickly...but left all the lights.
|
| I found out the local Home Depot took them on certain days,
| so I loaded them up in the van. The wrong way to do it would
| be to put a long strip of packaging tape along the light and
| smash it...then put it in a bag.
| philote wrote:
| I'm here wondering how "wrong" that wrong way would be... I
| have a few tubes to get rid of as well, and my local
| trash/recycle drop-off won't take them.
| djbusby wrote:
| Works on my machine. Even w/o the tape.
| pikrzyszto wrote:
| In the UK every bigger grocery store has a bin for old
| batteries, disposing batteries is trivial.
| walthamstow wrote:
| There was even one on every floor of my previous office (at a
| national UK retailer known for selling pig-shaped gummy
| sweets)
| Ekaros wrote:
| In Finland I think even the smaller stores have a red
| carboard a box hidden somewhere... For electronics bit
| harder, but still should not be impossible.
| Merad wrote:
| Ironically in my area at least (NC) this is handled better in
| my parent's rural area than it is in the [small] city where I
| live with city garbage and recycling pick up. In their county
| (which is all rural) each community has a small facility that
| collects garbage and recycling, and each facility has
| collection bins for electronics, batteries, florescent bulbs,
| etc. I just googled to see what I'm supposed to do with these
| items, and apparently the city holds a "hazardous waste day"
| once a year which is usually a madhouse... so I'm guessing that
| 75+% of that stuff ends up in the normal garbage.
| philote wrote:
| I'm from NC as well, and moved from a major city to a rural
| area. For me, both have similar disposal options. In the
| city, you had to go to a trash drop-off center to dispose of
| batteries (same place you'd take used oil or other hazardous
| waste, as well as regular trash or even yard debris). I think
| the difference is, in the city you have trash pickup and
| can't just toss batteries in with the trash or recycle.
| Whereas out in the country you have to take everything to a
| drop-off center, so you're probably more likely to dispose of
| batteries properly since you don't need to take an extra trip
| to do so.
| pathartl wrote:
| Yeah, there's quite a few smaller municipalities that hold a
| hazard day or a e-waste collection day. But yeah, they're
| normally crazy. I wish there were more common collection
| areas, especially for batteries. Post offices or libraries
| with collection boxes that are "safe" would be great. Boxes
| that won't melt, will vent pressure, and maybe filled with a
| bunch of sand that the batteries get buried in.
|
| Also there's a ton of e-waste that's still usable! e-waste
| days at regular intervals where people could trade could
| result in a lot of stuff being reused.
| SapporoChris wrote:
| "It's always best to consult with your local waste management
| service to learn the best and safest way to deal with dead
| batteries. One thing they will certainly not advise is putting
| them in plastic soft drink bottles and chucking them in
| canals.." https://japantoday.com/category/crime/kyoto-man-
| arrested-for...
| magicalhippo wrote:
| > I feel like there's not enough easily accessible information
| in the wild about what you're supposed to do with old
| electronics, and especially batteries.
|
| Here in Norway it is in principle rather easy. The law requires
| shops that sell electronics, batteries, light bulbs and such to
| accept and handle such goods for recycling.
|
| So, if you can buy it there, you can deliver it for recycling
| there.
|
| There's also plenty of information about this in various ads,
| physical and social media, so hard to not know.
|
| Yet people throw batteries and whatnot right in the trash, or
| worse. Some people just don't care about others, is my
| conclusion.
| officeplant wrote:
| I know they are small batteries but I have to wonder how much
| hazardous shit is being thrown away with disposable vapes.
| Especially ones that get recharged a few times before being
| tossed with a charge still held.
|
| (In the Southern US) Its bad enough with alkaline/lead acid
| batteries being tossed in the waste system. We really need
| programs to deal with battery waste. When I worked at Radioshack
| in the 2000s we were one of the only local places people could
| drop battery waste off at for recycling and now those are all
| long gone.
| jstarfish wrote:
| Lowe's takes them. Look near exits post-checkout (weird place
| for them).
|
| CVS apparently does too but none of the employees ever seem to
| know anything about it.
| officeplant wrote:
| I'll have to check my local one, online it says they do
| accept cellphone and rechargeable batteries. I'm not sure how
| they feel about batteries still contained with-in a vape.
| Local medical cannabis dispensary had zero leads when I asked
| about a recycle program for disposable THC vapes they sell
| that aren't able to be separated from their batteries.
| neocodesoftware wrote:
| https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09213...
|
| Detection of batteries in waste streams
| tmikaeld wrote:
| May be too slow when added to a trash pickup service, which
| don't have time to wait for or spread-out trash to detect the
| batteries.
| Aperocky wrote:
| A legislation that requires 50% markup that is refunded at
| recycling center?
|
| Not sure how well it'd work in rural America though.
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