City of Spokane

1
City of Spokanes Battery Collection Program

• Scott K. Windsor
• City of Spokane Solid Waste Dept.
• swindsor_at_spokanecity.org

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Background

• 1990
• City of Spokane begins collection of household
  batteries in order to divert mercury and other
  heavy metals from the waste stream.

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Collection Means

• Curbside Pickup
• Transfer Station Drop off
• Commercial collection centers serviced by system
  personnel
• First year 21 tons collected

4
Curbside collection

• Place batteries in plastic bags and put into your
  recycling bin
• Will pick up auto batteries as well as other
  household batteries

5
Transfer Stations

• Accept batteries from both household and SQG
  sources as long as batteries our household in
  nature
• Batteries placed in recycling bin for
  transportation to battery sorting area

6
Commercial sources

• Accept household batteries from local businesses
  that accept them from their customers.
• We pick up and transport
• No fee

7
2004

• Over 88 tons of household batteries were
  collected in addition to over 90 tons of auto
  batteries
• 400 growth in the last 14 years.

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Types of household batteries

• Alkaline
• Ni-Cd
• Ni-MH
• Li-Ion
• Sealed lead acid
• Other- button cell, Carbonaire, etc

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Management of waste stream

• Alkaline batteries
• Recycle?
• Landfill

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Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, Li-Ion

• Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC)
• www.rbrc.org
• Will pay both shipping and recycling costs
• Successful example of Product stewardship

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Sealed Lead Acid

• RBRC will accept
• Local Auto Battery recycler
• Interstate Batteries
• Auto batteries, sealed lead acid
• Receive funds for auto batteries
• Sulfuric acid recycling as well

12
Mercury containing batteries

• Button cell
• Long life Smoke detectors
• Other long life applications
• Sent out for retorting

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Batteries you dont want

• Liquid Ni-Cd
• Carbon-aire
• Tend to be Military or Health care related
• Household Storage devices
• Hazardous waste disposal

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Packing

• New or reconditioned drums
• Fiber drums
• Cardboard boxes
• Drums good for about 500-550 lbs.
• ¾ full

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Cardboard box

• One cubic yard box
• Pricing is about 1 ½ times a reconditioned drum
• Holds equivalent of 4 drums worth of batteries
• Has inner liner

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Packing

• No matter the final container for disposal, about
  1/3 to ¼ final volume needs to be taken up with
  packing material

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Sorting and segregating

• Local low security prison provides work crew to
  sort batteries
• Place batteries into disposal container
• Also provide litter control for system

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Summary

• The Energizer bunny isnt laughing at you sorting
  batteries, hes laughing with you
• An effective battery collection program can be
  run on a low budget thanks to options that are
  now available