Recycling Portable Tool Batteries

Most builders today own one or more portable, battery-powered tools. While properly maintained nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cad) batteries should last for years (averaging over 650 charging cycles), the batteries do eventually wear out, and disposing of them can cause environmental problems.

Portable tool batteries are approximately 15% cadmium, which is considered a human carcinogen and listed by the EPA as a hazardous waste material. Unlike some other toxic materials, cadmium does not flush out of the human body and can accumulate for decades. Despite efforts to establish recycling programs for Ni-Cad batteries, they are thrown out with the trash all the time, either inadvertently or because it’s easier than trying to find the proper method of disposal. Putting Ni-Cad batteries into the solid waste stream is currently illegal only in Minnesota and New Jersey, but several other states have passed legislation that will become effective this year, and many others are working on it. Sending batteries to a landfill is dangerous because cadmium can leach into water supplies; when incinerated, cadmium ends up either in the atmosphere to precipitate out later with rain and snow, or in the ash residue. About half of the 3.6 million pounds of cadmium sent to waste disposal facilities each year is from rechargeable batteries, according to­­­ EPA figures.