My thanks to Dean Robinson Jr. and Nancy Kyle for their comments on my recent article about battery disposal. I am in the process of researching Best Buy and Staples. Both advertise recycling of rechargeable batteries. However, my article dealt with common household batteries (i.e. your garden variety AAs and AAAs, etc.). I need to determine who these companies contract with for recycling and how they process nonrechargeable batteries. If they simply toss them, there is no point in taking them to these retail outlets.
Robinson pointed out that The Big Green Box (a company I mentioned that accepts household batteries) uses Teck Cominco, now known as Teck Resources Limited, to process used alkaline batteries. I was not aware of this connection and appreciate his cautions regarding Teck's environmental record.
Using Robinson's supplied links and a few of my own quickly revealed problems at Teck as recently as May 2008. The failure of a heat exchanger in its lead refinery resulted in the release of 100 gallons of hydrofluoric acid into the Columbia River over a four hour period, according to The Omak-Okanogan County Chronicle. The acid contained about 2,100 pounds of lead.
Teck was also successfully sued by the Colville Indian Tribe for pollution of the Columbia River leading to contamination of Lake Roosevelt in Washington State, according to Public Radio International's “Living on Earth.” They have been slow to take action of the requisite clean-up of this area.
So, I will continue researching this subject. If we take the time to recycle responsibly, we shouldn't have to worry about whether the recycler is also acting responsibly.
