you are no longer allowed to trash rechargeable batteries

pitu

Now it will be possible to easily recycle rechargeable batteries -
cellphone, cordless phone, computer and camera batteries.

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/NY1ToGo/Story/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=64712

NY1 News
Dec 1, 2006

Law Requiring NYers To Recycle Certain Batteries Goes Into Effect Friday

A new law goes into effect Friday that both requires, and makes it
easier, for New Yorkers to properly dispose of certain batteries that
are no longer good. NY1’s tech beat reporter Adam Balkin filed the
following report.

As of Friday, there is a brand new, New York City law; you are no
longer allowed to throw rechargeable batteries in the trash.

“You know these little batteries we have that look very innocuous are
actually little toxic time bombs, if you will, because when they end up
in landfills, they contain heavy metals, cadmium, nickel, lead,
mercury, and when they go into landfills and open up those materials
leak into the ground and cause very bad pollution,” explained City
Councilman Michael McMahon.

Any retailer in the city that sells batteries will be required to stick
boxes somewhere in the store for consumers to stick any used
rechargeable batteries inside, including phone batteries, computer
batteries, and camera batteries. At no cost to the store, the
non-profit Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation will then dispose
of them or help redistribute the components.

“The battery in a cordless phone is typically a nickel cadmium battery
so there's nickel and cadmium,” said Ralph Millard of
www.call2recycle.org. “The nickel can be recovered from the battery and
used to make stainless steel. The cadmium is used to make new
batteries.”

What happens to New Yorkers who decide not to recycle? Well at first
there is a six month grace period, after which, if a recyclable battery
is found in your trash, you could be fined up to $50 for each battery.

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation says last year in the
U.S., more than 5 million pounds of batteries were recycled
voluntarily. It says thanks to the new law, it expects several hundreds
of thousands of pounds more from New York City alone.