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• About Batteries
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As a community we are getting pretty good at our blue and black box recycling. Decades of education have made the recycling of paper, glass, aluminum and plastics second nature to many of us.
 
When it comes to batteries, most people are uncertain about how to deal with them once they are dead.  If batteries are thrown away with our garbage they will end up in area landfills where all the metals in them can make their way into our environment. Batteries contain metals like lead, mercury, cadmium and nickel that can be bad for our health.
 
Batteries we use every day in our toys and appliances are usually either cylindrical batteries or button cell batteries.  Cylindrical batteries have a bump on one end for the positive terminal, and a flat end for the negative terminal.  Button cell batteries are small, round batteries that you might be familiar with from your watch.
 
The most common types of cylindrical batteries are:

• Zinc carbon batteries – These are most commonly used in flashlights, toys, clocks, and radios.  They are cheaper than alkaline batteries but also have a shorter life span.
• Alkaline batteries – These batteries are more expensive than zinc carbon batteries but they have a longer lifespan and are not likely to leak.  They are used in lots of household goods like flashlights, toys, clocks, and radios.
• Lithium Primary batteries – These batteries provide a constant voltage until they are discharged.  They are usually used in games, watches, and cameras.

The most common types of button cell batteries are:

• Zinc air – These batteries are usually used in hearing aids.  They are a long-lasting button cell battery.
• Silver Oxide – These batteries are most commonly used for watches, toys, and calculators.

Only about 2% of batteries are recycled in Canada each year according to the Canadian Consumer Battery Baseline Study (2007) with the rest of the batteries ending up in the landfill.  In 2004, 340 million batteries were sent to the landfill!  It’s expected that this could increase to over 483 million by 2010.