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December 5, 2005

Mayor Cites Need for Environmental Awareness, Disposal Care

News flash from the North Pole: Santa will be extra nice if he sees you recycling your dead batteries.

Just in time for the holiday season – when 40% of U.S. household battery sales occur – Woodbridge Township Department of Public Works has placed battery recycling boxes at the Main Library and at Iselin, Fords and Henry Inman branch libraries. Any battery except auto batteries may be deposited.

Why recycle batteries? Because it’s good for the environment and public health, says Mayor Frank G. Pelzman. “Batteries contain materials that can cause soil, water and air pollution. By recycling these batteries, we are helping to insure that dangerous chemicals and metals are not released into the environment but are collected and refined into new usable chemicals.”

And recycling batteries is more than a good idea. . . it’s also the law in New Jersey, which prohibits municipal garbage disposal of rechargeable batteries like Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd), Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium Ion (Li-lon) and Small Sealed Lead (Pb) batteries weighing less than 2 pounds . Increasingly popular among consumers, rechargeable batteries are widely used in cordless phones, power tools, lap top computers, video cameras and many other products.

According to the Atlanta-based Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, nearly 3 billion batteries are annually discarded by American households – approximately 125,000 tons of batteries per year. It is estimated that 35% of the mercury in the environment comes from used batteries leaching into soil, water and air.

Woodbridge Township has had a vigorous recycling program for several years that has earned several state awards. “Each year our recycling programs save hundreds of thousands of dollars in reduced landfill disposal costs while protecting and preserving our environment,” says Mayor Pelzman.