# Recycling batteries **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061 "2018-03-05T16:39:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/1 "2018-03-05T16:39:55Z")
Having heard that small non rechargeable batteries are very toxic to landfills, I have long been careful to recycle them. But now the county division of solid waste tells me they are no longer recycled and should just go into the household trash. My trash collection company, however, still tells me they are not allowed into the trash and must be recycled. What I have been doing, therefore, is separating them from the rest of the trash and putting them into a blue recycling bucket, and then taking them to the county dump and pouring them back into the trash, as they have instructed me to do. But it certainly feels like a dumb exercise. Not the least unfortunate about this is that, while all the recycling they accept they do not charge for, if I put anything at all into the trash there they charge me for a full car/truck load. So I’m pouring a gallon or two into the big truck trailer, and paying the same as if I had thrown away several hundred pounds. Besides, making an hour trip there has its own environmental costs. But it was difficult and expensive to take any recycling to another state’s collection station, making me think their operation is subsidized by state funds. What is a battery consumer to do? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/2 "2018-03-05T16:46:43Z")
I’d like to know the answer to that one too. While I mostly use rechargeable batteries, which I can take to Home Dopey to recycle when they no longer hold a charge, some of the Firebug’s toys only take non-rechargeable batteries. I’ve just been dumping them in the household trash when they’re dead, but I feel guilty about it. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/3 "2018-03-05T17:10:51Z")
King County (where Seattle is) definitely lists alkaline batteries as safe for landfills. I only use 'em in my smoke detectors, but it does mean I generate quite a few. My wife’s work has a ‘battery recycling’ bin, so they go in there. No idea what happens to 'em after that. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/4 "2018-03-05T17:26:21Z")
Our recycling company recently started refusing to take GLASS! Any and all glass! I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/5 "2018-03-05T18:08:36Z")
IIRC, the problem with alkaline batteries was the mercury, which is no longer in any batteries in the US except for button batteries. Alkaline batteries are landfill safe. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/6 "2018-03-05T18:39:37Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Our recycling company recently started refusing to take GLASS! Any and all glass! I don’t get it. Mixed glass needs optical sorting as only clear glass is really desired. Without that ability (and expensive equipment) mixed glass is not valuable, and telling people to only recycle clear glass is to complex for them to understand, so better to landfill the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/7 "2018-03-05T18:40:09Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Our recycling company recently started refusing to take GLASS! Any and all glass! I don’t get it. No great cite except a radio story I heard some years ago, but the profit margins on recycling glass are small to nonexistent. Though the article below says the world is running out of sand, aka the raw material for glass. So I don’t know. > **[The World is Running Out of Sand](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/world-facing-global-sand-crisis-180964815/)** > > The little-known exploitation of this seemingly infinite resource could wreak political and environmental havoc ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/8 "2018-03-05T18:43:50Z")
How on Earth could the world be running out of sand? Maybe the specific places where it’s usually harvested right now are running low, but that just means you need to get it from somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/9 "2018-03-05T18:45:14Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > No great cite except a radio story I heard some years ago, but the profit margins on recycling glass are small to nonexistent. Though the article below says the world is running out of sand, aka the raw material for glass. So I don’t know. > > [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/world-facing-global-sand-crisis-180964815/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/world-facing-global-sand-crisis-180964815/) The world is not running short on sand; it’s running short on construction-grade sand. That said, I have no idea whether you can use lower quality sands or not in glass manufacturing. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recycling-batteries/810061/10 "2018-03-05T19:08:05Z")
That article focuses on construction uses but does mention glass making. This article: > **[World Faces Global Sand Shortage](https://www.npr.org/2017/07/21/538472671/world-faces-global-sand-shortage)** > > The world is running out of sand. So much so that some countries have banned exports of sand, and there is a thriving black market for it. David Greene talks to freelance journalist Vince Beiser. is a little more specific but again the focus is on construction sand, because that’s where the huge demand is coming from, but the expert clearly implies that the shortage of sand will affect glassmaking as well.