Bring out your dead

Once again, the world seems determined to frustrate any attempt to do the right thing. Like most people, I've got a small box of dead batteries lurking in my kitchen junk drawer (from before I switched to using mainly rechargables) and I have no idea what to do with them. The question turned up on the Vancouver LiveJournal community a couple of times in the past month, inspiring me to investigate further.

I remembered from a year or two ago that the recycling centre on Maple street at W.6th in Kitsilano accepted batteries, but you had to pay for their disposal. My quick visit informed me that they now take them for free, but they might switch to another company because they weren't confident they were being properly disposed of. A little legwork revealed that, just in my neighborhood, Future Shop, Shoppers Drug Mart and Home Hardware all accepted alkaline batteries.

While the Recycling Council of BC's website includes information on recycling everything from fridges to rechargeable batteries, there's no help for alkaline batteries.

Alkaline batteries are not included in an industry collection program at this time. Several private companies and some municipalities offer battery collection and drop off services. Phone the RCBC Recycling Hotline for local options. To reduce the impact of batteries on the environment, choose rechargeable batteries instead.

People are still using up alkaline batteries every day, so why isn't there a better system for their safe disposal?