Countless products, accessories and pieces of equipment require batteries to function. The size of these batteries can range from coin-sized batteries that fit inside watches to large, heavy batteries used to power vehicles. Over time, most batteries run out of capacity to store power and need to be replaced. Swapping out batteries is easy, but knowing what to do with them can be difficult and frustrating. Batteries contain dangerous metals and chemicals that need to be disposed of properly, and there are several risks involved when this doesn't happen.
Environmental Damage
If batteries are placed into a landfill, they gradually decay over time, and the contents of the battery spill out into the environment. Even if batteries are contained in a dump, the byproducts can seep into the soil and spread underground into other regions, coming into contact with plants and other organic matter. These metals can kill off living organisms and make the soil inhospitable to other plant life. Even incinerating batteries fails to remove the metals and chemicals from the environment, and it can take years for the soil to clean itself.
Food and Water Pollution
While the introduction of toxic elements into the environment is bad enough on its own, even worse circumstances result if the batteries make their way into a food or water system. Not all plants will be killed by the toxic elements of a disposed battery, but many will absorb these chemicals, making them present in your food supply. If you consume enough of these foods and/or water, or if the elements are present in high enough levels, you can become sick. This type of toxicity is particularly dangerous for fish, since waste runoff often enters creeks, streams and rivers, and fish are commonly taken straight from freshwater and consumed by those that catch them.
Self-Disposal Hazards
Some people may prefer to destroy the batteries themselves, especially if their local recycling center charges for the safe recycling of batteries. One of the most common methods of self-disposal is burning the batteries in a fire. This is hazardous to you in two ways. Batteries can become explosive when placed in high temperatures like those posed by a fire, and explosions could expose you to exploding acids and chemicals that could severely burn your skin. Even if the batteries are burned, the chemicals and metals are not destroyed--they are instead dispersed into the air, where you run the risk of inhaling the chemicals or having them irritate your eyes or nose.
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