Ideal Bite

I hate to burst your bubble, but I was collecting batteries for years much to the annoyance of my hubby and one day he took the basket of batteries to the dump to recycle and came home with a sheet of paper explaining why they don't recycle regular batteries....and we live in a very progressive area for recycling and waste management...

You should look into "Enloop batteries by Sanyo I bought 4 with a charger about a year 1/2 ago for my camera. I have not had to buy any new batteries for my camera since then (they recharge up to 1000x). While two are in the camera the other two get charged and then back in my camera bag. They hold there charge a long long time. Now we have them for everything!!!! All our remotes, our closet light, our portable radio...everything. We have raved about them so much that now three of my neighbors bought them. I have even given a set of them with a charger as gifts. My son-in-law now buys them!!! Love love love them!!!

What about batteries in these new fangled audio greeting cards? Can they be recycled.

My wife and I are in a band together and much of our gear requires either batteries or conventional power (AC adapter wallwart thingy). We tried rechargables, but they just don't hold their power long enough. We can't have our gear loosing power in the middle of our show, yet we need to be chordless so that we don't trip over the chords. So here's what we do: We use regular batteries for shows ONLY. All other times we use AC adapters whenever possible (It's called a 1 Spot Adapter). As soon as our show is over, we take out the regular batteries and put them in a ziplok bag which goes in the fridge when we get home until the next show.

I have to agree with Carol. I use Eneloop NiMH batteries and the LaCrosse BC-900 Battery Charger for both digital cameras, baby monitors and a heavy duty universal remote. The remote ate through them pretty quickly but its been at least two years and they are holding their charge really well.

Radio Shack will accept any dry cell battery for recycling, even though they won't necessarily advertise the fact. I have been taking a box to them every two months or so full of batteries I collect at home and in the office. I have also been pushing people to start using fewer batteries to begin with, or use rechargeable ones, which can be used longer than disposables. Remember that Reduce and Reuse come before Recycle...

I'm disappointed Bite Staff! Cole Hardware takes back batteries and way more..and has a far better environmental, local and community commitment than either Radio Shack. You should really be doing a bite just about them.

We have also collected single-use batteries for years and it's hard to find a place to recycle. In our area (SE PA) the only place that will REALLY recycle them free of charge is IKEA. Many places SAY they "recycle batteries", but they really mean "rechargeable batteries" and have to throw out the single-use type in the trash (Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, etc.). So, we collect them and bring them to IKEA when we're near one. We even collected from area residents at our township's Earth Day celebration this weekend so we could "carpool" the batteries to IKEA (I cleared it with IKEA first - and advertised their green efforts at the event).

The EPA recently recommended that when storing used batteries before recycling them, to place tape (duct tape works fine) on the positive and negative ends of the batteries, to eliminate the risk of batteries in storage reacting with each other and being a hazard. I can't find an actual document on this but hopefully someone knows a little more about it. There have been cases of batteries in storage causing electrical fires.

We just don't use a lot of batteries, except in our remote and smoke alarm, but thanks for the tip, Lauren, regarding taping the ends during storage before recycling. To Michelle, I have never heard of Cole Hardware, I live in VA, have lived in TX, IL, FL, MN and MI.