Battery sorting is being updated again. Apparently, the public is having a hard time with this, although special containers for handing in used batteries are available in almost every store. However, the habit of throwing batteries away with onion skins and coffee grounds should be changed. Often, the tiny object that powers many everyday devices is at the same time a veritable storehouse of poison, which can wreak havoc when it ends up in household waste.
Mismanaged batteries are slow acting poison
A series of different components are needed to make batteries, in fact the entire periodic table. They contain heavy metals – cadmium, chromium, iron, cobalt, mercury, as well as often toxic organic compounds, salts, solvents, stabilizers. When it gets into the environment, all of this can significantly harm flora, fauna and also humans. If you try to open the battery (which I strongly do not recommend) with a screwdriver and a hammer, you will inevitably come into direct contact with its contents. The same thing happens in nature – only without a screwdriver. The battery shell and internal elements break down under the influence of the weather, but the substances inside do not disappear anywhere. They accumulate in the soil, run off in the rain, seep into the groundwater, and thus move and spread. Harmful substances also spread if a person processes such soil in the spring or autumn – plows, plows or otherwise moves it. If tomatoes, radishes, apples or anything else grows later on such a battery-poisoned patch of land, there is a risk for humans and animals to ingest harmful substances with food.
A lot depends on the environment: the battery will break down faster in seawater than in the desert, however, in normal Latvian conditions, for example in a household waste landfill, the process of breaking down the battery casing takes from a few months to a year. If the contaminated site is not specially treated – the toxic substances are not collected and separated, they will work peacefully there for a hundred years. That’s why you shouldn’t throw batteries in the household waste, and you shouldn’t burn them either – they burn perfectly and even explode, but they’re dangerous not only because of that. Like tires or plastic, batteries release harmful emissions when burned, and heavy metals also accumulate in the ash.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence of the presence of these substances, for example, in the soil. If we can see a piece of plastic dropped in the forest, then the toxic substances escaping from the batteries do not signal their presence. There are different types of batteries – lithium, nickel, cadmium, mercury, etc. All these substances can harm a person. Some, especially in higher concentrations, can cause immediate problems, say an allergic reaction on the skin, while others accumulate in the body for years, gradually causing severe endocrine and oncological diseases. All this time, a person may not even realize that he is in contact with these substances.
Not all batteries are seen in everyday life
When hearing the word “battery”, one often visualizes a finger-type battery that can be inserted into a device. But we often forget that batteries are the battery of any portable device, whether removable or integrated. Any portable electronic device, mobile phones, portable battery chargers (power banks), computers, LED-type children’s toys, game consoles, quartz and electronic watches, electronic keys (such as car keys), key fobs with lights, electric cars, various chips, sensors, etc. – all these devices have batteries. Man constantly needs a power source, without it the conveniences of modern life are unimaginable. However, there is a price to pay for the convenience. Responsible behavior when sorting used batteries is not the highest cost.
Batteries and their management are the subject of ongoing academic research and popular science articles. This is not only a problem for Latvia, but for the whole of Europe and the whole world. In order to find the most efficient way of battery management, their decomposition process, soil and waste neutralization methods, technological solutions, etc. are studied. However, one thing is clear – battery management begins with their sorting and collection, which is also currently being updated Latvia’s Green Point in the campaign Your toxic finger?. There is no other way – the most important task is to educate society from childhood – first in the family, then at school, later reminding about it with various campaigns, until we as a society have matured to the point where we no longer need such reminders and sorting batteries will seem self-evident.
In the context of sustainability, one more aspect should be kept in mind, why batteries should be sorted and not thrown away in household waste – the depletion of the planet’s resources. Making a new battery will again require the same heavy metals, salts, organic compounds and solvents that were already incorporated into your used battery. Fortunately, there are ways to break down batteries into primary cells in a non-human way, and again to get raw materials for new batteries, saving resources.
Any product, including batteries, is not bad in itself. Without new discoveries and achievements in electrochemistry, without new products, we would not have our usual prosperity – environmentally friendly means of transportation, modern communication equipment and other everyday conveniences. The battery is not an enemy, but a useful thing in life, which you just need to learn to handle correctly and responsibly.
The author is a professor at the Faculty of Materials Science and Applied Chemistry of the Riga Technical University
