Environmental Values Inc.

Lead, cadmium, mercury, zinc chloride, nickel; these are metals which
have made up the bulk of the batteries we human beings have consumed
for our myriad of electronic devices for the last century. Over that
period of time, once the energy in them has been depleted, they have
ended up everywhere from the side of the road to landfills. Overall
very few have been disposed of properly or collected and recycled in
a manner that will support long term healthy environment for human
beings.

In an effort to move towards a future where we do less damage, have a
lighter impact on the planet which sustains us, I propose we inspire
the United States Postal Service and the American Public to use the
standard mailbox as the primary drop off location for all consumer
electronics batteries.

How would this look?

Individuals, when they go out to get their mail put their spent AAA,
9v, and other batteries into their mailbox (The batteries could be
pre-sorted by metal type and put in envelopes provided by the USPS or
recycler or they could be put in the boxes loose and sorted in bulk
by the recycler).

The next day when the Postal Officer drops off the mail they will
pick up the batteries, put them into those special white USPS bins,
bring them back to the Post Office and dump them into a bigger roll-
off bin that will be picked up when full and ready to be sorted and
recycled.

This will reduce vehicle gas emissions by having a Postal Truck that
is already driving the route use the gas already being spent to carry
the spent batteries to where they can be accumulated efficiently for
recycling.

The batteries also have a much greater possibility of staying out of
the landfill by making it very easy for individuals to do the right
thing.

The USPS can contract with a local or national metals recycler to
pick up the spent batteries and recycle them. The profits from this
venture can go to supporting the recycler and future USPS marketing
efforts.

It also sets a global paradigm for efficient and simple methods for
recycling where individuals get to have the experience of making a
difference first hand. It also has the conscious consumer feel better
about buying batteries in the first place.

posted by D. Baumgarten  # 12:37 PM 0 comments