NON-RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES Battery Type Description Mercury, Cadmium, Or Major Uses Lead Content? Components Carbon –Zinc Or Zinc Carbon the Cheapest Battery
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NON-RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES Battery Type Description Mercury, Cadmium, or Major Uses Lead content? Components Carbon –Zinc or Zinc Carbon The cheapest battery. Have much Flashlights, toys, shorter life span than alkaline remote controls clocks, Zinc, carbon, batteries. Cylindrical or rectangular No, relatively safe for land disposal. garage door openers, ammonium chloride cells; labeled as “General Purpose”, pagers, and smoke “Heavy Duty”, or “Classic” detectors. Alkaline Flashlights, radios, toys, The most popular, better calculators, remote Manganese performance, higher cost. Cylindrical Zinc, manganese Not after 1996, relatively safe for controls, electronic (non-button cell) or rectangular cells; the most Dioxide, Potassium land disposal. games, portable radios commonly recognized battery. hydroxide and televisions, garage Labeled “alkaline” door openers. Alkaline Manganese Zinc, manganese button cells Common button cell uses. Button- Yes. About 25 mg of mercury, Watches, calculators, Dioxide, Potassium shaped. May or may not be marked. equal to 0.5 % by weight toys, some cameras. hydroxide Lithium Lithium, No, but Lithium is highly reactive, Manganese Expensive, long shelf-life. Varied and used as a medicine for serious Dioxide or Cameras, pagers, shape, often small. 9-volt, C, AA, mental health problems. These Polycarbon keyless locks coin, button should be recycled. monofluoride, solvent Zinc air Made to replace the mercuric oxide batteries in hearing aids. Usually Yes. About 1% mercury. Zinc, carbon Hearing aids, pagers button shaped. Identify by pinhole on one side. Yes, a lot - 35 to 50% mercury -- In Mercuric Oxide (or “mercury-zinc”) No longer made or sold due to their Hearing aids, watches, consumer applications, zinc air Mercuric oxide, high mercury content. But you might and other items button batteries button cells have replaced mercuric Zinc, Potassium find some of these for several more requiring a small oxide batteries, which cannot be Hydroxide years. battery. sold in the U.S. any longer. These are the worst because Mercuric oxide (“mercury –zinc”) They are now used in they are big and have a high Rarely found in households now. Mercuric oxide, the U.S. only for larger batteries mercury content. Luckily, you will Often looks like 9-volt or fat AA Zinc, Potassium specialized industrial, find these only (maybe) at the batteries, should be labeled. Hydroxide medical, emergency clinic, but check pre-1996 batteries equipment. or foreign batteries. Silver Oxide Made to replace mercuric oxide Yes. About 1% mercury. Often Silver oxide, zinc, Watches, calculators, buttons for many applications. Button smaller than Alkaline Manganese potassium toys, greeting cards, shaped with no distinguishing marks. button cells. hydroxide musical books. RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES (all rechargeable batteries can be recycled cheaply or for free – go to www.rbrc.org or call 1-800-9-BATTERY) Battery Type Description Mercury, Cadmium, or Major Uses Lead content? Components Nickel-Cadmium (NiCad) Popular recharge battery and least Nickel, Cadmium, Power tools, cordless expensive of rechargeables. Look for Yes, Cadmium. Potassium phones, professional recycle logo or words “battery must Hydroxide radios be recycled or disposed” Nickel Metal Hydride Cadmium-free replacement for Ni- No, just Nickel, with some other Nickel, some “Rare Cad, more expensive but considered metals. These are much less toxic. Earth” metals, Same. to be less toxic. Look like NiCad Relatively safe for land disposal, Potassium batteries. but easy to find a recycler. Hydroxide. (Power tool battery example) Lithium Ion As compared to non-rechargeable No. Lithium – again this is not Lithium batteries, a good choice. Lithium, solvent, Computers, cellular something you want in your Expensive. Varied-shapes, depends and cobalt oxide phones, digital cameras environment. on use. Moderate performance compared Rechargeable Alkaline Zinc, Manganese Same uses as normal with Ni-Cad, but costs less and No. Relatively safe, but easy to Dioxide, Potassium alkaline and carbon-zinc relatively non-toxic. Looks like regular recycle anyway. Hydroxide batteries. alkaline batteries Small sealed lead-acid There are still toys and other devices that use lead-acid batteries, Yes. High lead content. Alarm systems, especially those from foreign emergency lighting. countries. Look like 6-volt or other You might be able to backhaul Lead, sulfuric acid Some toys and other odd-shaped smaller batteries. Look these with your vehicle lead-acid miscellaneous devices. for recycle logo or words “battery batteries – ask your recycler. must be recycled or disposed” Sources: RBRC Battery Lesson Plan, www.rbrc.org, Guide for Identifying Mercury in Household Applications, www.burlington.org/health/Mercury.htm, various retail websites. Note: Pictures are examples only. A number of companies manufacture and distribute each type of battery. This table is in draft form. © Copyright Zender Environmental 2005 .