What do landfills do with dead batteries?
If a battery is discarded in the normal household trash stream, it goes straight into landfill and, eventually, into the soil and water table. Trash companies do not, as a rule, open and inspect the trash they pick up at the curb. Sorting the trash is the responsibility of the household. It is up to the consumer to properly dispose of batteries as hazardous waste. Many cities provide drop-off points for household hazardous waste materials. In my community, the city runs hazardous waste disposal centres on a couple of weekends every year. We save all of our depleted batteries until the next household hazardous waste collection and dispose of them along with any other hazardous materials we no longer use (e.g., paints, chemicals). Industries usually deal with companies that specialize in hazardous waste disposal or battery recycling. The lead in lead-acid batteries, for example, is valuable on a commercial scale. Most companies that sell lead-acid batteries will take them back for a nomi
