Quinte Waste Solutions is once again asking residents to recycle spent single-use batteries on their regular blue box collection day between March 16 to 27 only. Specific orange battery recycling bags with instructions printed on them will be hitting mailboxes on March 5. Extra bags will be available at every municipal office in the service area after March 5 for any resident who does no receive a bag.
Since starting the curbside battery recycling program in 2013, the entire area has kept over 29,000 lbs of batteries out of landfill by putting them in their provided battery bags for the blue box.
“It’s kind of amazing,” says Tanya Delany, Hazardous and Electronic Waste Operations Supervisor for Quinte Waste Solutions. “We thought we would have started to see a decline in batteries coming in as we have done this about four times in two years, but we’re consistently seeing the same amount every collection. I’m happy residents are disposing of their batteries properly.”
Batteries that are collected are sent to Raw Materials Company (RMC) in Port Colborne Ontario. RMC uses a sustainable process that is capable of recovering 100% of each alkaline battery recycled with no materials going to landfill. Up to 92% of each battery is upcycled, which means that the the materials are used to displace the use of equivalent virgin materials in the manufacture of new products. The zinc, maganese and potassium are reused as a micronutrient additive in commercial fertilizers and the steel is reused in the manufacture of automobiles and appliances. All of the recovered materials are sold back into the marketplace within 300 miles of RMC’s Port Colborne, ON facility.
Residents are strongly encouraged to place a small piece of masking tape over the terminals of 6 Volt or button-type batteries (often found in watches) to avoid any hazards.
Apartment complexes, condominiums and businesses that use 95-gallon carts are not included in this program, however many buildings are now equipped with battery collection drop off containers. All residents are encouraged to visit www.quinterecycling.org or call (613) 394-6266 to find battery recycling drop-off locations.