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Many of us already know that batteries are some of the worst contaminants there are for the environment. Dangerous substances in batteries that can be released into the environment and get into ground water and into our food chain when batteries are simply thrown into the trash and taken to the dump include such chemicals and poisons as mercury, lead acid, nickel cadmium and lithium ion, none of which, I assure you, you want to ingest either witting or unwittingly.
Zihuatanejo battery recycling program
We use batteries for so many things: our cameras, cell phones and toys; our car batteries, our computer power backups; smoke detectors and watches; that flashlight that we carry around with us to walk down the beach after dark; the clock that wakes us up every morning. These batteries, be they the small button type, the AA or AAA dry cell cylinders, the rechargeable rectangles or the humungous, wet-cell battery sitting in your vehicle — all contain heavy-duty contaminants and carcinogens that must be dealt with by experienced and qualified handlers in order to separate and isolate the contaminants for disposal.
So, here we are in Zihuatanejo, we have a stack of batteries we need to get rid of, the humid and salty environment does nothing to help preserve the casings of these batteries from corrosion — what do we do?
Fortunately, the Ecology Department at the Zihuatanejo City Hall (Ayuntamiento), conducts and on-going Used Battery Collection Campaign (Campaña de Recolección de Pilas Usadas) and will receive old batteries of any type and will send them off to a proper processing and containment facility for safe disposal. Small batteries should be collected in a jar or other suitable container. Ecología suggests cutting the top off of an old plastic bottle of any type and collecting your batteries in it; once the bottle is full, take it in to Ecología and put it in their bin. The office even distributes stickers (see photo) that you can wrap around the collection bottle so the batteries are easily identified as used and useless while the container is being filled. Defunct computer and car batteries and bigger items of that type can be taken in as is and given to them for disposal individually.
Contact information:
Dirección de Ecología,
Palacio Municipal, parte baja (Plaza del Sol, Carr. Fed. 200)
Tels. 755-555-0700, 554-2068, 554-4455, ext. 229
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