EPA Green Living hazardous waste disposal Sustainability

How to Dispose of and Recycle Batteries

Since the millions of batteries manufactured worldwide often end up in landfills, Rader has some helpful tips on reducing this household waste. This A-Z guide compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will give you all the information you need to dispose of and recycle batteries properly.

When batteries from your cell phone, lawnmower, flashlight or any battery-powered device stop working, it’s time to remove them and replace them. Once you take them out and set them aside, determine which ones can be disposed of in your household waste/landfill, and which ones can be recycled.

Spoiler Alert: Alkaline Batteries Can Go in the Trash 

 

  • These common everyday batteries are used in such products such as alarm clocks, calculators, flashlights, TV remote controls, radios, remote-control products, children’s toys and other items.
  • For example, some common alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries include 9 Volt, AA, AAA, C, D and some button cells.

Find a Battery Recycling Location Near You


Batteries are manufactured using different mixtures of chemical elements designed to meet customers’ power and performance needs. Batteries can contain metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, nickel and silver, which can pose a threat to human health or the environment when improperly managed at the end of their service life. Battery types are identified by marking and labeling, not by the battery’s shape or the color of the label.

Used Ni-CD Batteries

Short for Nickel-Cadmium, two metals on the Periodic Table of the Elements, these batteries are typically used in cordless power tools, cordless phones, digital and video cameras, two-way radios, bio-medical equipment and video cameras. They may look like single-use AA, AAA or other alkaline batteries or a battery pack shaped for specific tools.

If Ni-CD batteries are removable, rechargeable batteries, they can be brought to specialized battery recyclers, or participating retailers that provide battery take-back services. In Rader’s hometown of Findlay, OH, Ni-CD batteries can be dropped off in the tools department at Lowe’s.

Used Lithium-Ion Batteries

Learn more about these batteries and their proper management.

Some batteries may also contain materials such as cobalt, lithium and graphite that are considered critical minerals by the United States Geological Survey. Critical minerals are raw materials that are economically and strategically important to the United States and have a high supply risk potential and for which there are no easy substitutes. Consequently, every effort should be made to recycle and recover these materials to ensure they will be available for generations to come.

Some Batteries Are Hazardous, Some Are Not

Once a battery is no longer useful, the type and chemistry of the battery determines which of the various waste management options to use. It is important to manage batteries correctly according to their type because some batteries can cause a risk to safety and health if mismanaged at the end of their lives.

Batteries can have enough energy to injure or start fires even when used and when they appear to be discharged. For safety, remember that not all batteries are removable or serviceable by the user—heed battery and product markings regarding safety and use for all types of batteries.

For more information, visit the EPA’s website

Coronavirus Environmental Solutions Green Living Sustainability

Rader Launches Sustainable, Green-Living Solutions

Facing a slowdown from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, Rader Environmental’s president Joe W. Rader asked his employees to think of new ways to work with – and help – the Findlay, OH, community, and the team came up with a commitment to providing sustainable, green-living solutions and micro-homesteading services to local residents. During these challenging times, we believe this is our responsibility as stewards of the environment and as American citizens. We also hope to bring some much-needed joy to the lives of our neighbors, friends and family members who are required to shelter-in-place for the next month or longer. 

Rader gardening
Some of the sustainable, green-living solutions we can provide include creating vegetable gardens, flower gardens or even building chicken coops so people can collect fresh eggs. We also offer an array of micro-homesteading services/outdoor beautification services including landscaping, fence-repair work, lawn-mowing, deck-building and refinishing and much more!

Micro-homesteading will help you become more self-sufficient by giving you the tools to grow your own food, conserve natural resources and decrease your dependency on the global food supply chain. Our goal as a company is to help each other thrive, remain sustainable and conserve our precious resources in the face of ongoing uncertainty. 

Families carrots

Sustainable, Green-Living Solutions Available  

In addition to having more than three decades of experience as a chemist and hazardous waste management professional, Rader started his career providing sustainability solutions to Northwest Ohio residents. A former farmer, landscape artist, “budding” horticulturist (pun intended) and avid gardener, he’s putting a lifetime of skills to use.

peas

To make sure we’re fully compliant when outdoors, we follow strict guidelines that even surpass those established by the Centers for Disease Control. Our staff has been trained by a leading Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), so we are innovative in our approach to cleaning and disinfecting our work areas. The crew always practice social distancing of 12 feet or more at all times. We use OSHA-approved personal protection equipment (PPE) to protect you, your family and our workers. Finally, we always ride solo in our trucks and other vehicles. 

baby goat

So, whether we are digging a garden for you or draining a ditch, check out the lists below to see how we can help.

Here are our sustainable-living solutions/micro-homesteading services: 

  • Landscaping 
  • Vegetable gardens
  • Flower gardens 
  • Raised-bed gardening 
  • Gray-water irrigation systems
  • Potting sheds
  • Chicken coops
  • Owl boxes
  • Much more

sunflower
Here are the new outdoor beautification services we offer: 

  • Landscaping 
  • Lawn-mowing 
  • Weeding 
  • Flower bed/garden bed cleanup and preparation for the growing season
  • Nursery items: seeds, seedlings, perennials, annuals 
  • Deck-building and refinishing
  • Fence work, painting and repair 
  • Brick and paver work
  • Water features and coy ponds 
  • Driveway sealing
  • Garage-floor finishing 
  • Much more

Coronavirus Cleaning Solutions 

In addition to providing sustainable, green-living and outdoor beautification solutions for the entire family, we are also available to help decontaminate facilities, offices, laboratories, universities, schools, apartment buildings, warehouses or any property that’s been exposed to the coronavirus. As a team trained in emergency response, we can rapidly mobilize quickly to your location virtually anywhere in the Midwest. 

Rader utilizes EPA-registered and approved disinfectants to remove coronavirus contamination from your site and adheres to the guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Dedicated to Helping Industries  

In addition to these new sustainability service lines, we continue to provide the hazardous waste management solutions our clients have come to trust for over 30 years. We are working without interruption as essential employees to provide R&D labs, universities, healthcare facilities and other public and private companies solutions to all of their chemical waste, hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste needs. 

Industry drums

Providing Mercury Abatement Services 

As world-renowned experts in mercury spill remediation, removal and disposal, we are also still helping industries and residents solve their mercury abatement challenges. Rader has cleaned and remediated major sailing vessels in the Great Lakes and commercial airlines in Africa and the Middle East, as well as facilities in our own backyards here in Northwest Ohio. 

It’s now time for us to lend a helping hand to our neighbors, residents and businesses during these unprecedented times.

Contact Rader Environmental Services today if you’re interested in any of our newly launched sustainable, green-living or micro-homesteading solutions.