Neighborhood Battery Recycling
Submitted By: Kana Ryan (kana@steveandkana.com)

Challenge
“Honey, I turned the kids green!”

Being “Green” is not just a catch phrase uttered by lovable Kermit but rather an important focus in our culture today. To help my children learn more about environmental efforts and to do something constructive we embarked on a battery collection community service project.

Solution Details
First we made a flyer to put in our neighbors mailboxes. The flyer appealed to the neighbors not to throw away their batteries but let us help recycle them. Then we put a box outside our front door and encouraged neighbors to drop off their batteries. The boys were so excited to check the box everyday to see what we’d collected! To make it even easier we also offered to pick up our neighbors batteries… all they had to do was put them on their doorstep.

battery
According to information on Sustainable Moraga’s website approximately three billion batteries are sold in the US annually, but less than one percent of them are recycled. And batteries are one of the largest categories of household hazardous waste land-filled in California: more than 34,000 tons of batteries are land-filled annually. Eventually, toxic metals — cadmium, copper, zinc, lead, manganese, nickel, and lithium — leach from batteries deposited in landfills, contaminating soil and water. Clearly recycling them is essential. Recycling companies reclaim the metals and sell them to industry.

We collected batteries from neighbors, friends and even from our preschool, Mulberry Tree. All in all, we collected quite a few batteries and we recycled them at one of the Moraga collection sites (see list below).

Benefits & Payback
While we might not have saved the world, we saved a few batteries from the trash, raised awareness about battery recycling and my boys got a sense of accomplishment and did something “good” for the earth.

Informational Links
If you want more information to do your own neighborhood battery project, please feel free to contact me at kana@steveandkana.com

Battery recycling drop-off locations:
Moraga - Longs Moraga Center, Longs Rheem Center, Moraga Hardware and Lumber; Lafayette - Longs Drugs, Ace Hardware;
Orinda - Longs Drugs, Rite Aid.

For more information about Sustainable Moraga and Moraga’s Battery Recycling Program see http://www.sustainablemoraga.org/projects/battery-recycling-program/


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