Chicagoans now have an easy way to recycle their batteries with the launch April 23 of the City of Chicago’s new permanent battery recycling program. People can recycle their batteries at all Chicago public libraries and Walgreens stores across the city. By recycling their batteries, residents will help keep these materials out of the waste stream and reclaim them for reuse.
“This program is very user-friendly thanks to our partners at the Chicago Public Library and Walgreens who are offering us more than 200 drop-off sites across the city,” said Al Sanchez, Commissioner of the Department of Streets & Sanitation, which administers the City’s recycling program. “Residents now have a convenient place to dispose of household batteries and it’s good for the City and the environment by removing this material from the general waste stream.”
Batteries might seem like a small item, but 3 billion batteries are thrown away every year, creating a very real concern for society and the environment.
Recycling batteries in the new program is very simple. Residents can deposit batteries, either alkaline, rechargeable, or other common types, in a receptacle at one of the designated locations. The batteries are shipped to Battery Solutions, Inc., a national battery recycler, who will recover the batteries and recycle them.
Battery recycling involves the reprocessing and reuse of essentially three materials: plastic, lead and other metals, and acid. To begin recycling, a lead acid battery is hammered into pieces. The broken battery pieces go into a vat where the lead and heavy materials fall to the bottom and the plastic floats. The plastic polypropylene pieces are scooped away, washed and dried and sent to a plastic recycler where they are melted into pellets and sold for battery cases. Battery acid, on the other hand, is often converted to sodium sulfate for use in laundry detergent, glass and textile manufacturing. Meanwhile, the lead parts of the battery are cleaned and then melted together. When impurities have been removed, the molded lead is then sent to battery manufacturers for reuse in the production of new lead plates and other battery parts.
Funding for the City of Chicago’s battery recycling program has been provided in part through a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
For more information on the battery recycling program or to locate the battery drop-off site closest to you, please visit the City’s Web site at www.cityofchicago.org or call 311. |
