There are 30 million tons of solid waste discarded by Texas residents each year. Residential waste is most of that, at 63%, while the rest is commercial and institutional. Many early landfills were not designed to keep rain water from leaching into the groundwater. Even though some of the newer landfills may have liners to prevent water contamination they may still leak. When the liners fail they pollute lakes and rivers allowing lead and acid from batteries to contaminate the water. 88% of mercury found in streams is due to dry cell batteries and 50% is due to cadmium. Mercury exposed to the environment can allow toxic vapors to reside in that area for many years. Recycling of batteries can keep some of these harmful metals from contaminating our landfills.
Most of the common household batteries are AAA, AA, C, D, 9V, and button batteries, or "Dry Cell batteries". 3 million of these batteries are purchased per year . These are typically single-use alkaline batteries. They are mainly used for flashlights, toys, remote controls, and clocks. The batteries in these appliances are replaced quite frequently and most of the time are thrown in the trash instead of being recycled. The #1 recycled battery is the Lead-acid automotive battery at a 98% recycle rate. Because of state law lead-acid automotive battery retailers accept used batteries for recycling. New batteries are made up of 60% to 80% recycled batteries and the rest is used to make plastic products.
Non automotive lead-acid batteries such as Gel Cell and sealed lead-acid batteries are most commonly used in alarm systems, emergency lighting, and industrial equipment. Most automotive stores will also accept these types of batteries for recycling or they can be...
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...ly. So please stop and think before trashing your used up batteries, that is what you are drinking, bating in, and giving to you your children. Instead if trashing your batteries collect and recycle them, and next time you go to purchase batteries consider reaching for the rechargeable batteries.
Bibliography
Battery Solutions - www.batteryrecycling.com/regulations
Batteries Common Wastes and Materials/ US EPA www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/battery.htm
Recycling/ GS Battery (USA), Inc- www.gsbattery.com/content/recycling
How to Recycle Batteries - Battery University- http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/artical/recycling_batteries Materials used for rechargeable batteries ehow- www.ehow.com/about_6170008_matreials-used-rechargeable-batteries.html
US Federal Law on Battery recycling ehow-
www.ehow.com/list_7541286_federal-laws-battery-recycling.html
All three of these examples prove that pollution is happening in Texas and that it is important for residents to get involved if they want a change to happen. Sometimes, even governmental agencies cannot stop pollution. We must take care of our natural resources, especially land and water, because they are non-renewable. We want our state to be clean for our grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. This will not happen unless residents of these toxic waste sites take action and let their voices be heard. Besides, whatever happened to the slogan, “Don’t Mess With Texas?”
The article, “Our E-Waste Problem is Ridiculous, and Gadget Makers Aren’t Helping,” by Christina Bonnington, focused the process of electronic devices to be recycled, the challenges of recycling electronic waste, and making devices more recyclable. First, Bonnington described the recycling process. Depending on the condition on the product will determine if it will be reused or stripped down to be destroyed. According to the author, having a simpler design makes the reprocessing easier to bare the electronics for turning into materials. Next, the author mentioned the challenges of recycling. One challenge is how electronics are becoming more compact and tougher to strip apart to separate the materials. Conferring to Bonnington, batteries are
Harmful emissions from the landfills escape into the air we breathe. The soil and water are also contaminated from our
Electronic waste, or any waste for that matter is an inevitable part of an economic system where the destruction of an ecosystem is the primarily source of resources that are used to create the product. The waste that occurs from this process has to be disposed of in some way and more often than not, it is disposed of carelessly with out consideration to the affect it would have on the environment or the very people that create and let capitalism live on, “The political economy approach also defers progress on environmental issues to a pint after economic ones are solved” (Robbins et al. 2010, 114). And if this continues there may be no place left for the excess waste created by capitalism.
“Our E-Waste Problem is Ridiculous and Gadget Makers Aren’t Helping” written by Christina Bonnington focus on what dangerous and damaging affects e-waste has on the environment caused by gadget makers. Accordingly over forty million tons of the electronic devices, where a great fraction of the waste ending up in the landfills. For this reason, many of the chemicals in the electronics eventually seeps in the water supply. Although, it is not assume instantly as horrific, numerous chemicals in these devices are hazardous such as mercy, lead, and arsenic. This means the toxic chemicals are putting people and the landscape in danger. Meanwhile, damaged batteries that are in the electronics could cause an explosion, putting worker at risk whom remove
Daily consumers are confronted with advertising campaigns trying to lure their slightly used electronic devices into retirement by being swayed into upgrading to the most recent model. A 2007 study conduct in the United States revealed “500 million used cell phones that are stockpiled in closets and drawers will eventually end up in landfills as electronic waste (E-Waste).” As E-Waste continues to spread across the globe it is growing faster than leaves can grow on trees and it is posing a threat to human health and the environment (E-Cycle).” Consumers recycling cell phones to reuse materials is environmentally and socially beneficial in reducing E-Waste.
In this recent century, there is ease into taking our technology as something for granted. After all, technology has opened up our abilities to instantly connect to the other side of the world, instantly retrieve information from the Internet, and instantly listen to digital content if desired. However, while a cell phone, laptop, and iPod has many differences from one another, all of those three devices share one item in common at the very least and that is a Lithium-Ion Battery.
There may be mineral build up on the battery contacts and if there is, buy a battery cleaner brush to save some money rather than going to the auto shop. Most batteries do not require a lot maintenance but it is good to know where the battery is and the problems it may face.
In the world today there are hundreds of battery brands and many of them claim to be the best. The question is, is the consumer paying for the named brands worth the extra money. There are two main battery types the alkaline battery and the lithium battery. The alkaline battery is used for everyday uses such as your remote or the new toy you bought your child. The lithium battery is a lighter longer lasting battery used mostly for cameras and high energy using products. In this experiment the alkaline battery is going to be tested. According to two Consumer Reports, Duracell has the best alkaline battery and almost outperforms the energizer lithium batteries. This led the hypothesis for the experiment to say that Duracell will outperform
Overall, the advantages of lithium-ion batteries outweigh the disadvantages, thus making it a great candida...
Disposal of electronics obviously differs dramatically from the disposal of say, old mattresses or soda cans. Because e waste contains a number of toxic substances, they need to be disposed of properly to ensure safety of human and environmental health. As addressed in Hai-Yong Kang’s article “E-Waste in Recycling” (2005) , the disposal method is a problem because the amount of old electro...
Many people believe that we should not recycle anymore, but this is not the case. We, the people of the world, need to continue to recycle because we do not want our children to grow up in a world where there are no certain species of animals due to recycling failures. We also do not want our children to grow up thinking that it is okay that they throw their garbage on the ground, and not have to pick it up. We need to teach our children that they need to take care of the earth that they are living on, because they only get one. Recycling is one of the most beneficial environmental issues that we have here on this earth. Recycling saves energy, limits pollution and supports several environmental factors of the economy. “In 2003, the savings from recycling 54 billion aluminum cans exceeded the energy equivalent of 15 million barrels of crude oil- or the amount of gas the U.S. uses in one day,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA estimates that 200 million gallons of used oil are not disposed of properly, and if we were to dispose the oil properly then we could keep the oil from polluting the ground and the fresh water source. According to E. Takatori, “… While on-going societal regulation treats material recycling as the dominant cycle, the properties of recycled plastic remain the most port
The more important issue that must be addressed is if people are aware of the fact that they can actually recycle their own old computers. The majority of people are unaware of the fact that computers are in fact recyclable in their entirety. Most old computers end up collecting dust simply because they are outdated and better technology is available. When twenty students were surveyed on whether or not they knew computers were recyclable, seventy percent answered that they did not think computers were able to be recycled. The following chart shows the results.
Over the past decade there was a prominent development observed in the sphere of high technologies production, so the scale of electronics market becomes wider and spins up from day to day. “According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), consumers were expected to purchase 500 million units of consumer electronics in the US in 2008. US households spend about $1407 per year on hardware.” (Electronics Takeback coalition, 2010) Accordingly, there is a clear tendency of rapid substitution of electronic appliances observed, as every other day producers offer consumers more efficient and powerful gadgets instead of their predecessors. Consequently, high rate in electronics upgrading results in shortening of their lifespan and following stockpiling of needless gadgets, which then become a part of municipal waste. These end-of-life electronic devices are often called ‘electronic waste, or e-waste’. Now approximately 20-25 million tons of e-waste is estimated to be produced worldwide every year with the largest number of electronics being discarded in Europe, the United States and Australasia. (Brett H. Robinson, 2009) Hence, there is a serious challenge of management of e-waste disposal appearing across the whole world. Figures show that a very small percentage of electronic waste undergoes recycling process, whilst its lion share is stockpiled in landfills or incinerated with the rest of solid municipal waste. According to EPA, in the U.S. in 2008 3.16 million tons of electronic waste was produced and only 430.000 tons which constitute 13.6% were recycled. (TakeBack Coalition, 2010) This essay will present main points of e-waste problem, analyze possible solutions of the problem and discuss if they are suitable and efficient en...
E-Waste has been shown over time to cause many health concerns for the public. Many landfills are filled with chemicals and hazards because of e-waste. Many countries especially developing ones do not have proper disposal and recycling techniques to dump their e-waste. Electronic waste contains many toxic elements including but not limited to : mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, beryllium and brominated flame retardants. Sometimes when the e-waste goes to a landfill it ...