Alkaline Battery Recycling Program in King County, Washington

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

This program describes an innovative approach to managing alkaline batteries that demonstrates a new service to county residents, intergovernmental cooperation, cost effectiveness, and enhanced environmental protection. Prior to 2011, alkaline batteries were not collected at household hazardous waste facilities in King County, Washington, as it was determined that the cost and environmental impact of shipping batteries across the country for recycling outweighed the benefit of recovering the metals contained in these products. With the knowledge that the recycling method involves recovering the metal parts of the battery, the program investigated whether the these could be instead recycled at a local steel mill in Seattle. This program was very effective, with over 45,000 pounds of batteries collected.