How to dispose of old batteries in Whatcom? Millions are tossed annually nationwide
Millions of batteries are thrown away by Americans every year.
But there are policies and rules for which ones you can dispose of in landfills and which you should recycle, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Many people may not even know they are doing anything wrong. If batteries are thrown out with the rest of the garbage, they can end up in a landfill. They will decay and leak materials into the soil and water that are harmful to humans and the environment, environmental experts say.
“Landfills are not designed to handle hazardous materials,” Jennifer Hayden, Environmental Health Supervisor for the Solid Waste Program in Whatcom County told The Bellingham Herald in an interview. “When batteries containing things like lithium and cadmium, we don’t want those going into the landfill. Also, if there is a recycle option we want to conserve our resources as much as possible.”
Local environmental officials recommend disposing them at two sites in Whatcom. Pacific Power Batteries at 1511 Iowa Street, Bellingham and the Disposal of Toxics facility at 3505 Airport Drive, Bellingham. Hayden said people are encouraged to use the Whatcom County website for up to date information on what can be recycled.
Rechargeable batteries can also be recycled at some hardware stores such as The Home Depot or Lowe’s. Recycle locations can be found using the Call2Recycle location finder or the Washington State Department of Ecology Website.
Throwing away batteries is one of the most common mistakes people make when safely disposing of items, Hayden said. While people are allowed to throw out single use batteries like the standard AA, lead-acid, lithium and most rechargeable batteries should be recycled.
Individuals can recycle their batteries with the Disposal of Toxics facility for free, while businesses have to pay a fee. This facility does not accept alkaline, single use batteries. However, Pacific Power Batteries does accept these batteries, although there is a fee to recycle them, said store manager Trevor Almassy.
Pacific Power Batteries disposes of about 2,000 pounds batteries every two months. The Disposal of Toxics facility reported 24,000 lbs of lead acid batteries, 1,706 lbs of rechargeable and 485 alkaline batteries were recycled in 2022.
“In regards to alkaline batteries, we are accepting them from businesses but not households,” Walker Brown, Lead Environmental Technician at Disposal of Toxics told The Herald in an email. “Any alkaline batteries that come through our facility get recycled, but we try to limit it because of high cost of recycling.”
Where do the recycled batteries go?
Batteries are not recycled in Bellingham, and instead shipped to Cirba Solutions, headquartered in Wixom, Michigan. The county facility ships batteries to Call2Recycle in Atlanta, Georgia to be recycled.
Most, if not all of Whatcom’s battery disposal sites are located in Bellingham, so Hayden suggests people outside the city store their old batteries and bring them with them when and if they visit Bellingham.
It is recommended people separate their batteries by type, and place lithium ion batteries in separate plastic bags to reduce the risk of fire. This is recommended by Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Disposal of Toxics facilty accepts more than just batteries. Some of the more common items are cleaning products, oil based paints and fertilizers.
.jpg)