Taking charge

Campus has five locations for recycling cell phones, batteries

Battery and cell phone recycling is now an everyday operation at Tech. While the campus community can still recycle batteries and electronics at the annual Earth Day celebration, AA, C, 9-volt batteries, rechargeable batteries, and cell phones can also be dropped off at any of the five appointed battery and cell phone recycling sites.

The Office of Environmental Health and Safety is operating the new battery recycling program. “All batteries can, and should be, recycled,” said Hazardous Materials Manager Ed Pozniak. “Those with the ‘three chasing arrows’ symbol must be. Improper disposal of batteries can lead to contamination of soil and ground water.”

The program will recycle small batteries, such as alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries, button cell batteries and non-alkaline “rechargeable” batteries. Cell phones are included in the battery recycling program because they all have rechargeable batteries in them.

“On-campus recycling of batteries is limited to locations where attendants can receive and neutralize the batteries prior to placing them in the recycling container because of a small but real possibility of fires,” Pozniak said. “It is a rare but serious event when batteries believed to be fully discharged still retain a small charge which can generate heat or start a fire when they come in contact with other batteries in the collection box.”

As a best practice, the Georgia Tech Office of Environmental Stewardship recommends using rechargeable batteries. Because they can be recharged up to 1,000 times and can be recycled, they save money and the environment.

Mark Demyanek, Assistant Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety, acknowledged that even though campus policy and EPA regulations do not require Tech to recycle this wide range of small batteries, it is the right thing to do for the environment.

“Most types of batteries can be recycled,” he said. “However, some batteries are recycled more readily than others, such as lead-acid automotive batteries [nearly 90 percent are recycled], button cells [because of the value and toxicity of their chemicals] and rechargeable.”