Recycling Mystery: Rechargeable Tool Batteries

 

Many power tools use batteries to run instead of corded electricity or the muscle of the user. You can find rechargeable batteries in a variety of common household power tools such as drills, drivers, saws, blowers, work lights, and trimmers, and more. Most people find it more convenient to use battery-powered tools than to be tethered to an electrical outlet. And rechargeable batteries are easy to charge when their power runs low. However, eventually, these batteries wear out and need to be disposed of. Are rechargeable tool batteries recyclable?

Rechargeable Batteries 101

Rechargeable batteries work the same way that standard batteries do. Both make power by means of an electrochemical reaction involving an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte. In a rechargeable battery, the reaction has the capability to be reversible but a standard battery does not. A rechargeable battery is recharged by reversing the negative-to-positive electron flow that occurs during use. This resets the battery cells’ charge, making the battery usable again.

Common types of rechargeable batteries include lithium-ion (Li-ion), lithium-ion polymer (LiPo), lead-acid, nickel-cadmium (NiCad), and nickel-metal hydride (NiMH). But most home power tools use the familiar Li-ion batteries. These are also commonly used in electronic devices such as cellphones, laptops, and tablets. Li-ion batteries use lithium ions to move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during use and then back again when charging. Today, Li-ion batteries hold a charge longer, can be used in a wide range of temperatures, and are lighter than other battery varieties.

The Need To Recycle

It’s very important to recycle spent rechargeable batteries as they can be very volatile. When not properly sorted, carefully transported, and safely taken apart, battery components can easily cause fires and even explosions. To visualize this hazard, watch Mythbusters Junior’s demonstration of how common batteries can cause fires when compacted as could happen in a garbage truck.

Of the more than 100 material recovery facilities surveyed by Call2Recycle, 50% have seen an increase in battery-related fires in 2018. A nonprofit program that encourages businesses and battery users to recycle batteries properly, Call2Recycle runs the United States’ largest consumer battery stewardship and recycling program.

Additionally, batteries contain many reusable materials. Recycled lithium-ion batteries can be made into new batteries, steel, or stainless steel products. Nickel-based batteries can also be recycled into new batteries or products such as cutlery, golf clubs, and cooking tools.

And if you need another reason to recycle your batteries, it is illegal to dispose of them incorrectly in many states in the U.S. and Europe. Some states in the USA  require that producers offer or fund battery collection events, whether that is the case here in Menorca, I´m not too sure of yet. The best place to take them here is the special recycling place on the outskirts of town.

Rechargeable Battery Recycling

Power tool rechargeable battery recycling has become commonplace in much of the U.S.

DeWalt also accepts rechargeable tool batteries from any manufacturer for recycling at their service locations, free of charge. The company designated October as National Power Tool Battery Recycling Month in 2008. But no matter what month it is, recycling your rechargeable batteries is the right thing to do.

 Looks like DeWalt have got their act together, I am sure others will or are already doing the same.

 The blog song for today is"Iron Man" by Black Sabbath

 

TTFN

UK warned it is unprepared for climate chaos

Here is a very informative report from the BBC covering climate change, it is based on the uk but I think it applies to us here in Spain and Europe too.      

The UK is woefully unprepared to deal with changes occurring to the climate, government advisers say.

A report by the independent Climate Change Committee predicts warming will hit the UK harder than first thought.

It warns of more severe heatwaves, especially in big cities, and more intense rainfall, with an increased flood risk across most of the UK.

It says homes, infrastructure and services must be made resilient to floods, heat and humid nights.

The authors of the report on adaptation, or "climate-proofing", warn that global warming can cause damage running into tens of billions of pounds over short periods - and they say they're frustrated at the lack of government action.

• Climate change 'driving UK's extreme weather'
• Extreme weather causes major global losses in 2020

The committee, also known as the CCC, says the UK is even worse prepared than it was five years ago, at the time of its last report on the risks of climate change.

The CCC is an independent group of experts set up to provide the government with advice on the climate crisis.

The chairwoman of the CCC's sub-committee on adaptation, Baroness Brown, said ministers appeared to be deterred from taking action by the upfront costs of protecting infrastructure. This is because the benefits sometimes are not seen for several years.

"They think they can put adaptation off until tomorrow," she said. "But now's the time for urgent action."

Responding to the report's findings, a government spokesman said many of the issues raised were being addressed in policy.

Here's what the CCC says the government must do to better prepare for the impacts of climate change:

Buildings

There's a need to insulate buildings to save emissions, but overheating has emerged as a deadly risk - especially in flats. The government must force landlords to improve cooling by, say, installing sunshades. Ministers must ensure all new homes are built for a hotter climate.

 

image copyrightKathryn Brown

image captionShutters can help shade the interiors of homes during periods of intense heat

Nature

The state of UK nature has been declining for some time, with habitat loss one of the factors driving the loss of plant and animal species. Climate change will make the situation worse. Beech trees won't be able to tolerate conditions in southern England by 2050.

Three-quarters of upland species are likely to struggle by the end of the century, the report says. Meanwhile, peat bogs currently help reduce the effects of climate change by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. But if the world continues to warm at the current rate, peatlands could dry out, and begin releasing their stored carbon into the air.

The government must re-wet 100% of upland peat moors urgently, the report says.

 

image copyrightPA Media

image captionClimate change threatens the supply chains for essential medicines

Supply chains

Climate change will place pressure on our increasingly connected world and the effects can take us by surprise. For example, about 10 years ago, flooding in Thailand caused a global shortage of computer hard drives.

Rising temperatures will put supply chains at risk for food, medicines, goods and services. The report says businesses must be told to make information available to the public on threats to their supply chains.

The electrical grid

As the UK makes the transition to a low-carbon economy, we'll need more electricity for heating, lighting, and for our vehicles. So power cuts because of extreme weather will hurt the country more.

In one recent example, a lightning strike caused power cuts across England and stranded people on trains in August 2019.

image copyrightPA Media

image captionA lightning strike in 2019 led to chaos on train networks

The committee says a heating climate will bring some opportunities for the UK - such as the ability to grow different crops, a longer growing season that will benefit farmers and fewer winter deaths from cold - but it says these are massively outweighed by the risks.

The committee's chief executive, Chris Stark, said CCC members were so frustrated with the lack of progress on climate-proofing the UK that they deliberately made this report "spiky".

He said: "It's really troubling how little attention the government has paid to this." He told BBC News: "The extent of planning for many of the risks is really shocking. We are not thinking clearly about what lies ahead."

While the world could warm by an average of 4C by 2100, the report say the UK government's plans are inadequate to cope even with a 2C temperature rise.

Ministers must factor climate change more into policy-making, the committee says.

The report notes that, over the last five years, more than 500,000 homes have been built to inadequate standards. These will now need to be adapted at considerable expense to cope with more severe heatwaves.

The report foresees a potential "cascade" of problems from extreme weather, in which different risks combine.

These might include heatwaves and floods leading to IT failures and problems with sewage, water, power and transport.

Climate-proofing: What you can do

Kathryn Brown, head of adaptation at the CCC, has planted creepers to shade her walls. She recommends that home owners - especially in south-east England - should also fit window shutters to keep the sun off the glass.

 

image copyrightKathryn Brown

image captionThe CCC's Kathryn Brown has planted creepers to shade her walls

She also recommends people plant trees to help shade buildings, and avoid paving over gardens because the slabs can absorb heat.

She insists the government must help ensure that people in flats are protected from heatwaves, by improving ventilation and shading. Developers could improve shading by building in architectural features that shield homes from the sun's rays.

Kathryn Brown says people can do more to prepare for floods by signing up to free flood warnings, and looking at options for flood protection, such as door guards.

The document is based on a huge review of the scientific literature by 450 experts from 130 organisations.

One of the lead authors was Prof Dame Julia Slingo, former chief scientist at the UK Met Office in Exeter. She told BBC News: "Things are worse than we have anticipated."

Downpours that dump 20mm of water in an hour will become twice as frequent as previously projected. Winter extreme rainfall could be up to 40% more intense.

Surface water flooding will become a serious hazard as drains overflow during these rainstorms.

'I can't concentrate in my sweltering flat'

By Chris Wimpress - BBC News

Most nights when I've come home from work this week, the temperature in my flat has been hovering around 30C. I've got ceiling fans in the living room, and in the bedroom I've got a desk fan and a cooling unit. Even so, sleeping at night this week has been difficult and I've been going to work tired and tetchy.

Until a couple of years ago, my flat was mostly in shade owing to a large office block opposite. But that building was demolished and now, on sunny days, my west-facing flat is bathed in sunshine for up to eight hours each day.

Like a lot of people, I have worked from home quite a lot in the past year or so. There have been afternoons when I've sat on video calls dripping with sweat, struggling to concentrate and thinking I really ought to find somewhere else to live. So far, we've had about two weeks of hot weather in London this summer, and it's only the middle of June.

Co-author Prof Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the Met Office, told BBC News: "The main thing is that the risks of climate change to the UK are even higher than we appreciated five years ago."

Unless global emissions are drastically cut, he says, the UK could experience temperatures highs of 40C every three-and-a-half years.

A government spokesman said action to adapt to climate change was "integrated" across different government departments.

He added: "The UK was the first major world economy to set a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Our plan to further reduce emissions in 2035 by at least 78% compared to 1990 levels is the highest reduction target by a major economy to date.

"We welcome this report and will consider its recommendations closely as we continue to demonstrate global leadership on climate change ahead of COP26 (the climate summit to be held in Glasgow) in November."

Follow Roger on Twitter.

As you can gather this really does apply to every single country on the planet.  The governments really do need to get their acts together along with the rest of us.

Of course there are people who have their heads stuck in the sand and have the opinion that "I am only one person what difference can I make".  In my humble opinion that is a complete cop out of responsibility.  One person can make a difference, we are all a single person but when you get thousands of "only one person" things can change.

We all need to go more green, as in plants and flowers, veggies and all that! This year we are growing cucumbers for the first time, what a great buzz, they are really cute and grow like crazy. 

To all people like me out there who, on occasions have mini meltdowns about the state of our beautiful home and all who live on it, KEEP UP THE FANTASTIC WORK YOU ARE DOING, IT DOES COUNT"

The blog song for today is: " Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel

TTFN

 

Canada officially tosses plastic in the 'toxic' bin

Plastic is now considered toxic under Canada’s primary environmental law — the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) — the Trudeau government announced Wednesday.

The decision, which comes despite months of lobbying by Canada’s $28-billion plastics industry, paves the way for a proposed ban on some single-use items. A series by Canada’s National Observer earlier this year catalogued the sustained push by the plastics and food industries to disassociate plastics from anything to do with the word "toxic."

However, the government held firm, which now clears the way for other measures to reduce plastic waste proposed by the government last fall.

“This is the critical step,” said Ashley Wallis, plastics campaigner for Oceana Canada. “It’s the key that unlocks so many possibilities to help us actually address the plastic pollution crisis.”

About 3.3 million tonnes of plastic is discarded in Canada each year, and less than 10 per cent — about 305,000 tonnes — is recycled. The remainder goes to landfills, incineration, or leaks into rivers, lakes and oceans, according to a 2019 study commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

The industry is also poised to drive continued oil and gas extraction, with some petrochemical companies expecting it to account for up to 90 per cent of their future growth, according to a 2020 report by the Carbon Tracker Initiative.

A 2020 government science assessment found ample evidence that plastic harms the environment, choking seabirds, cetaceans and other wildlife. The findings form the basis of the government’s decision, as substances can be considered toxic under CEPA if they harm the environment and biodiversity, human health, or both.

In October 2020, ECCC released a proposal to deal with the problem. Under the proposed rules, Canada will ban six single-use plastic items, like straws and six-pack rings, create incentives for companies to use recycled plastic, and force plastic producers to pay for recycling.

But none of these measures are possible unless plastic falls under CEPA’s Schedule 1 — the law's list of toxic substances.

“Once something is added to Schedule 1, the government actually has a requirement to act — so something needs to be done to address the issue,” said Wallis. “It is possible they could choose not to regulate and just move forward with voluntary agreements, but I (think) they are planning to move ahead with their proposed ban on single-use plastics.”

So far, the government appears intent on proceeding with its plan.

“Adding plastic manufactured items to Schedule 1 of (CEPA) will help us move forward on our comprehensive plan to keep plastics in the economy and out of the environment,” said Moira Kelly, press secretary to Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. “It will allow us to implement our proposed ban of certain harmful single-use plastics, make producers responsible for their plastic waste, and introduce recycled content standards.”

The move is opposed by Canada’s plastics industry. In a Wednesday statement, the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada — the country’s largest plastic lobby group — expressed concerns about the government’s approach. The organization has been vocal against listing plastics as toxic: It has spent months lobbying the government to prevent the decision and advocated for an industry-led approach focused on recycling instead.

Plastic recycling was invented by the plastics industry in the 1970s to assuage environmental concerns without substantially reducing plastic consumption, according to Max Liboiron, an expert on plastic waste and a professor at Memorial University.

It has never worked. Despite decades of effort, only about nine per cent of Canada’s plastic waste is currently recycled, according to the 2019 ECCC-commissioned study.

“I think the days of waiting for recycling to work are over,” said Karen Wirsig, program manager for Environmental Defence. The organization has been working closely with several others, including Oceana Canada, to push the government to enact stronger plastics rules. “We need to reduce the amount of plastic that gets put on the market and therefore, into the environment. We need to find alternatives to plastics in many cases.”

A Coke bottle on a beach in Skye, Scotland. Photo by Will Rose / Greenpeace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That means developing rules that prioritize the reuse of plastic items over recycling them. That’s not yet a major priority in the government’s proposed rules — and should be, Wallis emphasized.

“Recycling is not on its own going to solve this issue. We would like to see additional commitments to (for instance) refillable beverage containers or reusable packaging or … reuse targets,” she said.

“Those kinds of things are really going to enable the kind of circular economy we want to see.”

 Here is an article from a Canadian Newspaper which is very good.

For the first 50 years after plastic was invented, the idea of only using the long-lasting material once was blasphemous, an affront to values of frugality honed over years of war and economic strife.

Then, in the late 1950s, the plastics industry launched a massive marketing campaign — and single-use plastic was born. 

“The happy day has arrived when nobody any longer considers plastic packages too good to throw away,” Lloyd Stouffer said at the 1963 U.S. National Plastic Conference. Stouffer was a U.S. plastics marketing guru and the man who, in 1956, first pitched the idea that a virtually indestructible material — plastic — should be sold as disposable.

Since then, about 8.3 billion tonnes have been produced; most has been thrown out. Landfills are stuffed. Oceans and the animals in them are choked. Plastic particles are even showing up in human placentas, with unknown health impacts.

Plastic is everywhere: Manhattan, the Marianas Trench, even Mars.

Faced with this ecological crisis, dozens of Canadian municipalities and provinces have joined a growing global movement against plastic pollution. They have introduced bans and crafted new waste management legislation to try to control the problem.

Recently, the federal government jumped in, announcing plans for a national waste strategy that would list plastics as toxic under Schedule 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) and a ban on some single-use plastics. Most importantly, the plan calls for a new “circular economy” that would rely on massively scaling up existing recycling facilities and still-nascent recycling technologies to keep disposable plastic ubiquitous in our daily lives.

But can recycling really save us?

“Any material in the world can be recycled — if you separate it, prepare it and pay enough money to put it through the (recycling) process. The question is, is there a market for it? That’s what drives recycling,” says Samantha MacBride, an expert in solid waste management and a professor of urban environmental studies at the Marxe School of Public Affairs at Baruch College of CUNY in New York City.

“It’s a great industry — it provides jobs, it makes use of what’s around — but it doesn’t have anything directly to do with improving the environment.”

Canadians dispose of about 3.3 million tonnes of plastic each year, according to a 2019 study commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), almost half of which is packaging. Well over three-quarters currently goes to landfills, a small proportion is incinerated and about one per cent ends up directly in the environment.

Only nine per cent — or 305,000 tonnes — is recycled, the 2019 study found.

Left: A pile of garbage found at Sarstangen on the west coast of Svalbard, Norway. Photo by Christian Åslund / Greenpeace | Right: A northern gannet entangled in a green fishing net in the U.K. waters of the North Sea. Photo by Marten van Dijl / Greenpeace

That’s no surprise. Low oil prices make it difficult for plastic recyclers, who must invest in expensive sorting and processing facilities, to compete against already established petrochemical manufacturers, whose facilities are well integrated with the oil and gas industry. It’s cheaper to make plastic from so-called “virgin oil” and put the waste in landfills than it is to recycle old plastics into new products.

Oil and natural gas producers are betting heavily on continued growth in virgin plastic production, with the industry expected to soon account for between 45 and 95 per cent of global growth in demand for oil and natural gas, according to a September report by the Carbon Tracker Initiative.

How tech barriers stand in the way of recycling

Beyond economics, recycled plastic production is hindered by available technology. Mechanical recycling, a method where plastics are sorted and shredded before being melted down into pellets to make new products, is by far the most common form of recycling in Canada. For the process to be effective, however, the stream of plastics entering the recycling facility needs to be clean and well sorted — a requirement that is difficult to meet.

The variety of plastics on the market adds to the challenge: There are over a dozen types, each with different melting points and manufacturing requirements. Many are also incorporated into different parts of the same consumer product, which makes sorting difficult or impossible.

Dyes and other (sometimes poisonous) additives, like plasticizers and fire retardants, further complicate the process and diminish the recycled product’s final quality. With the exception of easy-to-sort, single-use bottles like those used for water or pop, few mechanically recycled plastics can be reused to hold food, according to a December 2020 report by Greenpeace Canada.

There is some promise in a suite of new recycling technologies, collectively called “advanced" or "chemical" recycling, which break plastics down into their molecular components so they can be remade into like-new products. Proponents are optimistic the new methods will be cleaner and more efficient, but observers have doubts. They also face substantial market challenges in Canada, pushing some to advance business ventures in Europe, where regulations forcing plastic manufacturers to use recycled plastic in their products make investments in the technology financially viable. Similar regulations are included in the federal government's planned plastic regulations, first announced in October.

These technical and market limitations mean Canada’s existing recycling industry focuses almost exclusively on four easy-to-recycle plastics:

• polyethylene terephthalate (PET), common in carpets, cups and water bottles
• high-density polyethylene (HDPE), common in milk jugs, outdoor furniture and pipes
• low-density polyethylene (LDPE), common in bread and trash bags
• polypropylene (PP), common in straws, auto parts and juice bottles

Other plastic products — from Spandex to vinyl siding — are mostly landfilled.

And when it comes to market share, producers of recycled plastics remain small players. Sales of recycled plastics in Canada were worth about $350 million in 2016 — 30 times less than sales of plastic made from virgin oil, the 2019 ECCC study noted.

Shifting responsibility

Regardless, the claim that recycling is the panacea for plastic pollution has been promoted for decades by the plastics industry and its allies, says Max Liboiron, professor of geography at Memorial University and director of the CLEAR laboratory on plastic pollution.

"Recycling was formalized and launched in 1970 on Earth Day … by the Container Corporation of America, which had sponsored a design competition for the now-universal recycling symbol," explains Liboiron. Industry’s hope was that recycling would assuage growing concerns among Americans (and Canadians) about the environmental and aesthetic impact of pollution, including from disposable plastic.

Global plastic production skyrocketed after 1950, increasing more than tenfold to reach about 35 million tonnes by 1970. Very little of it was recycled, and plastic soon infiltrated every facet of society, from grocery stores to hospitals. 

I found this article to be very informative and interesting.

I think that what they are writing about is the same as the rest of us in Europe are writing about too.

The blog song for today is: " My brother Jake " by Free

TTFN