Re: My local Radio Shack is no longer accepting batteries for re

It is true that many places that accept rechargeable batteries (NiCd, NiMH, lithium, etc.) for recycling do not accept non-rechargeable batteries such as standard alkaline, zinc carbon, etc. The only places I have found that recycle the non-rechargeable kind are on the Internet, and you have to pay to recycle them. There is a place called Battery Solutions (http://www.batteryrecycling.com/household.html) that recycles them for about 85 cents per pound. There is another place called the Big Green Box (http://www.biggreenbox.com/), which will send you a box that you can use to recycle up to 40 pounds of batteries and electronic equipment. It's expensive -- $58 for a single box. I have never used either of these services.

There should be an easier way for consumers to recycle batteries of all types. Over two billion alkaline batteries are sold in the U.S. each year, and over 10 billion are sold worldwide. Even if these types of batteries aren't as toxic these days, there is still no reason they should unnecessarily end up in landfills. Not only does recycling them save landfill space, but it reduces the need to mine metals.

There are facilities in the U.S. that process used alkalines now (see, e.g., http://www.toxco.com/processes.html and http://www.batteryrecycling.com/alkalinezinc.html). It's just a matter of establising collection points that make it easy for consumers to drop them off for recycling. People shouldn't have to pay a lot of money to do the right thing. Any business that sells batteries should be required to collect them for recycling. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to try to buy rechargeable batteries that can be recycled whenever possible.