Check out our 9 Volt Lithium Batteries or Smoke Alarm Batteries.

Of course, the smoke alarms need to be checked monthly and monitored. The green pilot light needs to be strong and steady, and the trigger button needs to be tested to make sure you will hear it if it goes off.

The lithium metal 9 volt batteries are here and cost less than most markets, plus, if you are able to purchase at least $40.00 dollars of battery products, we ship for free inside the USA. We will pay $5.00 shipping for any international order.
Check your smoke alarms and change out the batteries to lithium 9 volts so next time we change the clocks all you’ll need to do is check the alarm.

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It would be great if there was some sort of “Battery Recycle Value” or “BRV” put on each battery purchased so when they are recycled the purchaser would be reimbursed, helping to encourage recycling. In the meantime, those of us who are willing will continue to make that extra trip to Radio Shack or wherever you take your spent batteries. If there was some kind of system set up for reimbursing for recycled batteries, we at Battery Boulevard would be able to give some sort of credit toward the next purchase of recycleable batteries.

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to rechargeable battery and cell phone recycling. Through RBRC’s free program, Call2Recycle™, you can help protect our environment by recycling the rechargeable batteries found in the products used in your building projects. These electronic devices include cordless power tools, two-way radios, laptops, and cell phones, digital cameras, CD players, etc.. With over 30,000 drop-off locations, it’s easy and free to recycle your used rechargeable batteries.

Find a location near you. Visit Call2recycle.org 1-877-2-RECYCLE.

PUT BACK SO YOU CAN GO ON.

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Call2Recycle is considered by many as the most comprehensive nationwide program dedicated to recycling rechargeable batteries and cell phones. It helps make the process of recycling much simpler by providing information on where one can take the batteries and cell phones that need to be recycled. They provide a very valuable service to people who are aware of the consequences of not recycling.

Call2Recycle shows where to recycle rechargeable batteries found in cordless electronic products including two-way radios, cordless and cellular phones, cordless power tools, digital cameras and camcorders, as well as laptop computers.

Doug Smith, Chairman of the RBRC Board of Directors and Director of Corporate Environmental Affairs for Sony Electronics stated on CNW TELBEC, a Canadian news service, “Additional factors such as state and local legislation and grassroots involvement have helped boost overall environmental awareness and underscore the importance of rechargeable battery recycling.”

RBRC is working with cities in both the U.S. and Canada to encourage local businesses and organizations to actively collect and recycle used batteries. Initiatives and incentives are being presented in different forms to bring awareness and simplicity to recycling.

The “New York City Rechargeable Battery Law” went into effect on December 1, 2006, prohibiting the disposal of rechargeable batteries and requiring all NYC retailers who sell new batteries to also collect used ones. There are more than 300 Call2Recycle locations in NYC alone, making RBRC a leader in the solution to help local retailers comply with the new law and offer a way to recycle batteries free of charge.

RBRC is celebrating its ten-year anniversary in Canada where there are more than 7,000 collection locations nationwide participating in the Call2Recycle program.

Battery collection percentage rates in both the U.S. and Canada have increased steadily and will continue to do so as we find recycling as not only a necessity, but also a process that is fairly simple and not too inconvenient. We, as rechargeable power consumers, now have a way to clean up our used batteries as we go about our daily lives and continue to enjoy the benefits of portable power.

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We know that our living results in our inevitable refuse. We don’t really want to think of this, but it is part of a responsible civilization to have its purification procedures. We do want a clean society, don’t we? Yes, I believe we do. Unfortunately if I do not do my part I am leaving it up to someone else, who is leaving it up to someone else. We barely have the time and money to fill our gas tanks and feed our families. So what’s the big deal?

We have inherited these “use it and throw it away” lifestyles in various degrees, and we’ve come by them honestly. We’ve been preached to from every political mountain top, and driven to shame for practices developed through several generations. Disposable items were a revelation forty years ago. Today the revelations are not the same. We face environmental fallout from the perpetual unrestrained toxins that come from our advanced technology. We do not have the grace of even the small earthworm who produces nitrogen from its waste. Perhaps we need to reach a bit further.

I recently moved back home to California and forgot what it was like to have to pay a CRV (California Refund Value) charge for buying a beverage in a plastic or aluminum container. The price has gone up to $.05 cents for one aluminum can, and $.08 cents for each container of 24 ounces or more. I think twice before throwing a can or bottle away. They add up quickly.

Perhaps we could apply a “BRV” charge to all batteries (rechargeable and non-rechargeable) purchased. This “Battery Refund Value” could be totally reimbursed when the batteries are redeemed at a local recycling center. There are many places to take old, spent batteries. Currently several electronic retail stores will recycle them for us. They could give us a voucher that would be worth cash.

Last night I finished with a set of AA rechargeable batteries I’ve had close to four years. They don’t take a charge anymore. I watched my hand pick up the batteries and automatically begin to toss them in the waste basket. It was unthinking; automatic. I gently pulled my hand back and looked down at them. I do recycle batteries today, but in that instant I saw old behavior. My instant thought was about my own convenience of getting rid of them. Old thinking. Some things change with time, some with practice. I set the batteries down on the table and sat myself down to write this article. We can get better.

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It is estimated that Canadians will discard 500 Million primary (non-rechargeable) and rechargeable batteries up to 2010. This is up from 3.5 Million discarded in 2004.

The dramatic increase in demand for batteries has come from unprecidented numbers of electronic devices being produced and brought on market each year. There have never been so many types and styles of portable electronic devices in our American culture before. With all the effort to educate the public about recycling and using rechargeable batteries, it would seem that we would have made more progress. The success in education is happening on a large scale, but it just cannot out-step the almost critical mass of products coming online every year.

Here are some facts from the United States EPA:

• Americans purchase nearly 3 billion dry-cell batteries every year to power radios, toys, cellular phones, watches, laptop computers, and portable power tools.
• Inside a battery, heavy metals react with chemical electrolyte to produce the battery’s power.
• Wet-cell batteries, which contain a liquid electrolyte, commonly power automobiles, boats, or motorcycles.
• Nearly 99 million wet-cell lead-acid car batteries are manufactured each year.
• Mercury was phased out of certain types of batteries in conjunction with the “Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act,” passed in 1996.
• Recycling batteries keeps heavy metals out of landfills and the air.
• Recycling saves resources because recovered plastic and metals can be used to make new batteries.

“The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC), a nonprofit public service organization, targets four kinds of rechargeable batteries for recycling:

• nickel-cadmium (Ni-CD),
• nickel metal hydride,
• lithium ion,
• small-sealed lead.

“Batteries contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel, which can contaminate the environment when batteries are improperly disposed of. When incinerated, certain metals might be released into the air or can concentrate in the ash produced by the combustion process.” (United States EPA)

“It is strongly recommended that we recycle alkaline batteries. Although newer alkaline batteries contain less mercury than their predecessors, they are still made of metals and other toxins which contaminate the air and soil,” says WasteCap of Massachusetts (http://www.wastecap.org/wastecap/rsd/batteries.htm).

We can begin by using quality rechargeable batteries made by reputable companies. For all the hundreds of times we use them, we only throw them away once. Because of all the time and money we will save using rechargeable batteries, perhaps an attitude and mindset of awareness will result, our culture may become more willing to recycle.

Change, and the perspective is gives down the road, is very interesting. For example, it really is different if someone has recycled their home trash for awhile, and then visits a friend who does not recycle. In helping them take out the trash, I notice something is missing. Their trash is actually somehow dirtier. The garbage and cardboard and plastic bottles somehow just don’t belong together. There are vestiges of the guilt of having to do what one has learned not to do that come in. I just close the lid and try to forget about it because it is really not right for me to tell people how to do their trash. Things of that nature have a special time and place. It is none of my business.

The same goes here regarding batteries. We at Battery Boulevard are not on a crusade to change people. We just talk about what we do and what we have learned. Today there really is more information available about this small but important service we can do for our society if we separate the non-degradable from the biodegradable. But it really is a personal decision.

Cynics have a justified view to say one small effort really makes little difference to the world. One small aluminum can taken out of a sea of toxic garbage and placed in a recycle receptacle seems grossly unnoticed. But that is not the main reason I recycle. I had to learn what it is about. For me it is about doing what I can for myself and my home and what I am given to work and live with. It is not a moral subject. It is, however, humbling to realize my effort can be at times small at best. But it is what I can do for the next person who comes along.

People who read are more apt to recycle. They are more exposed to the facts of how the earth is getting polluted and how wildlife struggles to live in the wake of our refuse. They are doing their best to survive. Ultimately, I believe they will with or without us.

But it really gives me a good sense of doing something worthwhile when I recycle. Sure, I get no Academy Award or even a discount coupon from Coca-cola. But I know I am able to do something unrewarded that is good. It takes a few extra minutes, and somehow helps me find my conscience as one of America’s living consumers.

Recycling batteries is simple, and here are some websites to help you find local places to take your used batteries.
Next time, you might consider buying rechargeable batteries and you won’t have to recycle nearly as often.

Here is a quick search engine to find where you can locally

recycle:Local Recycle Drop-off
Look at the top of the page here: Earth911 Recycling

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