To help you prepare for the curbside  collection of used and unwanted single-use alkaline batteries in the City of Belleville during the week of March 18 – 22, 2013 – here is a video by  Meg Langston of the Wilmington Fire Department in North Carolina on how to change the batteries in a smoke detector.

Twice a year at daylight savings time, local fire departments ask residents to change the batteries in their smoke alarms. Coinciding with these occurrences is the “Batteries Dead? Recycle Instead!” initiative that will give residents in the City of Belleville  a perfect opportunity to recycle the used batteries that are removed from the smoke detectors.

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We all know or feel that it is hazardous to trash our batteries in a landfill, but did you know that there are many benefits when we choose to recycle batteries instead?

This Raw Materials Company flow chart describes a battery recycling process achieved through the application of their proprietary technology, which is able to harvest a battery’s valuable resources, giving them a second chance at life.

Steel, Zinc, Manganese, Paper, Plastic, Carbon and Potassium are all sought after commodities on the world market. As these natural deposits get harder to reach or become scarcer, the cost to mine or acquire them increases and so does the cost to us, the consumer.

However, when we choose to recycle them, we not only improve the supply – reducing its cost, but we also work to preserve our natural supply.

For instance, did you know that both steel and zinc can be recycled infinitely, retaining 100% of its chemical and physical properties?  According to the International Zinc Association, only 40% of the worlds zinc is made of recycled content, the remaining 60% is mined from ore. They go on to say that because a product made with zinc (zinc is used as a protective coating to preserve steel) has such a long lifecycle, the availability of recycled resources are limited.

The sustainable means of recycling metals vs. mining them from ore can be up to 85% more efficient, requiring less energy, resulting in lower emissions.

With new technologies in battery recycling, the process to recycle the steel and zinc has become economically and environmentally feasible; putting even more recycled content back into the marketplace.

The average consumer produces between .5 – 3lbs of battery waste per year. In 2010, over 750 million batteries were thrown into the trash in Canada. When we recycle our batteries we’re creating jobs, we’re lowering costs and we’re protecting the environment.  That’s what I call a triple bottom line.

Belleville residents have been invited to participate in a curbside collection of used single-use alkaline batteries on their collection day during the week of March 18 – 22, 2013.

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City of Belleville residents have been invited to participate in a one time collection of used and unwanted single-use alkaline batteries on their scheduled blue box collection day during the week of March 18 – 22, 2013. For more information, please click here. Battery Recycling Bags have been mailed out.

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So I was thinking about an Environment Canada stat I seen where every person generates between .5 – 3 lbs of spent batteries in a year and I decided that I wanted to see how many I had lying around. Keep in mind that I’ve been phasing out my single-use batteries for the last year or so by purchasing the rechargeable type and; I’ve only lived in my house since 2007 and made one trip to the Hazardous & Electronic Waste Depot in late 2009 – where I recycled my batteries.

So here it is, in a little over three years, I’ve accumulated  3.435 kgs or 7.56 lbs! There’s two of us, so we’re producing  a little over 1 lbs each per year it would seem.

What’s funny is, I didn’t find them all in one “junk drawer”, but in three separate drawers and a basket in my garage. The D Cell type were all in the basket in the garage, this is where I keep all my flashlights (not too handy, I know). All of the AA and AAA were in the end table next to the couch with the gaming console and TV remotes. I had some in a kitchen “junk drawer” and some in the desk drawer in my office.

For the Belleville residents that will be participating in the Curbside Battery Recycling Pilot the week of March 18 – 22, I would suggest that you wait for the week of March 4th to round them up when you get your battery-recycling bag in the mail. It took me less than 10 minutes to gather them all up because I had a general idea where to look, as I’m sure is the case for most of you.

For those folks that are not included in the battery recycling pilot this March, I encourage you to take your used single-use batteries to a drop-off location near you.

If you have a lead acid battery or any rechargeable type batteries, you can bring them directly to the Hazardous & Electronic Waste Depot in Belleville.

The Curbside Battery Recycling Pilot is taking place in the City of Belleville on a resident’s collection day during the week of March 18 – 22, 2013 ONLY. This program is in partnership with Raw Materials Company, Ontario’s only approved processor for single-use alkaline batteries under the Stewardship Ontario Battery Incentive Program.

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Any resident living within the 9 municipalities served by Quinte Waste Solutions is welcome to dispose of their Hazardous & Electronic waste at the Belleville depot located at 75 Wallbridge Crescent.

Download a copy of our Household Hazardous & Electronic Waste brochure for a complete list of acceptable items.

Responsibly diverting your Household Hazardous & Electronic waste is FREE and its the right thing to do!

Hope to see you out at one of our events this year!

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The Prince Edward County Recycling Schedule that was mailed to you the week of June 25 has an error.

Please note: THERE IS NO CHANGE TO YOUR COLLECTION WEEK

Please recycle the Collection Schedule and replace with the corrected version that will be mailed to you the week of July 9th.

Download a copy of the correct schedule here: Prince Edward County Recycling Schedule

We apologize for any confusion this may cause.

Thank you.

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During Earth Week (16 April – 22 April) Quinte Waste Solutions held a Battery Drive at the Quinte Mall and together with the help of the community, diverted 2337 lbs of used batteries from our local landfills!

More importantly, we are pleased to announce that the following locations have signed on to become permanent Household Battery Recycling drop-off locations, helping to make battery recycling more convenient for our community.

Home Hardware

Every store in Centre and South Hastings and Prince Edward County

Belleville – 481 Bridge St. E. and 445 Dundas St. E.

Frankford – 7 Trent St. N.

Marmora – Hwy 7 west                               

Madoc Village – 57 Elgin St. 

Picton – 13544 Loyalist Pkwy and 117 Main St. W.

Stirling-Rawdon – 9 Tuftsville Rd.         

Trenton – 1983 Old Hwy 2

Tweed – 310 Victoria St.

Wellington – 289 Wellington Main St.

Belleville 

Belleville Public Library Cafe – 254 Pinnacle St.

Household Hazardous & Electronic Waste Depot – 75 Wallbridge Cres.

The Source store in the Quinte Mall,

Quinte West

Quinte Waste Solutions – 270 West St.

Tweed

Tweed Municipal Office – 255 Metcalf St

The Chairman of the Centre & South Hastings Waste Service Board, Councillor Terry Cassidy of the City of Quinte West would like to thank all the public facing organizations that came forward to help make recycling household batteries more convenient. This initiative, combined with the responsible participation of residents in the area will go a long way to reduce the amount of batteries finding their way into our local landfill sites.

In 2010, 745 million household batteries were discarded by Canadians in their household trash. Less than 5 % of all household batteries are properly recycled because of the lack of convenient drop off locations.

Any public facing organization wishing to be a part of the solution at no cost, is encouraged to contact Raw Materials Company, an Ontario based Independent Stewardship Organization responsible for recycling Ontario’s batteries. Call 1(888) We-Reduce or visit www.rawmaterials.com for more information.

For all your other hazardous and electronic waste needs, please participate in the Quinte Waste Solutions Household Hazardous & Electronic Waste events running year round at the Belleville depot at 75 Wallbridge Crescent or visit www.quinterecycling.org for a drop off  event location near you.

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All the batteries that were collected during the week are going to be recycled responsibly through our approved processor – Raw Materials Company, an Ontario based, Independent Stewardship Organization  charged with responsibly recycling Ontario’s batteries.

Currently the lead-acid type battery (the one found in your car) leads the way for all battery recycling with close to 98% being recycled. Unfortunately, smaller household batteries like those found in mobile devices and electronics are almost never recycled with less than 5% recycled in Canada annually. In 2010 Canadians trashed 745 million batteries and with our increasing dependence for electronics and mobile devices, this number is only expected to grow.

The number one reason people do not recycle their batteries is because it is not convenient. Aside from the Household Hazardous & Electronic Waste program that operates throughout the area, only a handful of drop off locations exist. Quinte Waste Solutions facilitated the connection between all of the Home Hardware stores in Centre Hastings and Prince Edward County where residents are able to drop off their batteries during operational hours.

Any public facing organization that wishes to become a Battery Recycling drop off location can do so at no cost. Raw Materials Company offers a turn key program whereby organizations are only required to make a phone call when the pails are full to be picked up. There are a variety of pail sizes and pick-up options to fit any need.

Public facing organizations are encouraged to contact Raw Materials Company at 1(888) We-Reduce or visit www.rawmaterials.com for more information on how to become a battery drop off location.

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If I had a dime for every time I heard someone say, ‘We thought we would keep it JUST IN CASE….my sister/cousin/neice’s best friend’s father’s boss needed it….JUST IN CASE the new one breaks….JUST IN CASE we needed it for the spare room’ but in the end they simply gather dust and take up space – I am of course talking about our old, unused electronics! 

And it’s that time of year again when the shiny new electronics show up under the tree rendering the not so shiny ones already in the living room or office obsolete!

So, ‘JUST IN CASE’ you decide it’s time to recycle those old electronics
and ‘JUST IN CASE’ you decide you aren’t going to hold on to the old TV,
computer, cell phone, headphones, I wanted to let everyone know EVERY
THURSDAY from 10AM TO 2PM until April 2012, you can recycle your electronics at our Hazardous & ELECTRONIC Waste Depot at 75 Wallbridge Crescent in Belleville.

Here’s a LIST of everything we accept and if you don’t see your item on the list,
submit a question at the bottom of our Electronics Recycling page and I will let you know what other options you have – yes, even over the Christmas Holidays, I am here to answer your questions!

Happy Holidays and Thank you for taking the time to find out how to Recycle Responsibly!

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This is probably the most common question we get from residents, and while it may look that way because of the set-up on the recycling truck, they truly are doing a partial sort at the curb.

Our trucks are divided into 4 compartments; clear glass, colour glass, mixed fibres and mixed containers.

In the mixed container compartment, the driver throws all of your aluminum and tin cans, rigid plastics, Styrofoam and empty aerosol and paint cans. Beside that is the mixed fibre compartment where he throws all the newspapers, boxboard, office paper, grocery bags and corrugated cardboard.

Now, to the right of the driver you will notice two other compartments that sort of hang on the outside of the truck. One is for clear glass bottles and jars and the other is for coloured glass bottles and jars. When this compartment starts to fill up the driver will dump it into the truck where it is kept separate from the other items already in the truck.

At the end of the day or when the truck gets full, whichever comes first the truck will bring all the recyclables collected to the recycling plant also called the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) where it is dumped from the truck into separate piles. A loader will then scoop up the items and place them onto a conveyer belt where the recyclables travel along to be hand sorted into 14 separate groups.

Did you know plastics are sorted into 5 different types based on a number inside a mobius loop found on the item?

After the items are separated into their 14 separate groups, they get baled and shipped to various markets where they will be made into new materials.

What happens if I don’t sort my recyclables?

Quite honestly, it may not get picked up. That’s because our program relies heavily on our residents doing a partial sort at home. Not only does this keep the cost of the program down for us as taxpayers, it also helps us to produce a better quality material that the end markets want to buy.

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