On Friday, Dec. 1, a new law went into effect in New York City which received a lot less press coverage than the recent transfat ban, but may have a more profound and positive effect on our future. From now on, every retailer selling batteries is required to provide a bin within their store for customers to recycle their rechargeable batteries.

This is exciting news because it will keep heavy metals like nickel, mercury, cadmium and lead out of our landfills and our drinking water. The new law is even more exciting because the program will not cost the retailers a penny. Instead, the batteries will be collected by a nonprofit called Call 2 Recycle and, as the name implies, recycled. A portion of the funds raised by selling the metals and plastics collected from the batteries goes to selected charities. How can anyone lose in a program like this?

Now the questions are: will retailers follow the law? And who will enforce it if they don't?

Click here for some details about Call2Recycle's program. (PDF, 359 K)

Radio Shack & Staples stores have taken those worn-out rechargeables for quite a while. These and other stores in NYC also take problematic NiCad batteries, laser toner cartridges, old cell phones, etc, as detailed at Earth911.org.

Other heavy metal-laden eWaste can be taken to a periodic collection site, posted on LESecologycenter.org. MIght be nice to organize co-workers or neighbors to fill a vehicle with their old stuff and recycle all in one big load!

Posted by: WendyB on December 9, 2006 10:01 AM

Enforcement of the new law will likely be carried out by the Department of Sanitation. The penalties take effect 6 months from now and range from $50 for a first-time individual offender to $5000 for a third-time violation by a manufacturer.

Posted by: DavidL on December 12, 2006 10:57 AM

I wonder how well that enforcement is going to go? How does the department track where garbage is coming from?

And -- does anyone know the story behind why only rechargeables are covered in this law? Are one-time-use batteries less environmentally detrimental these days?

Posted by: Emily Gertz on December 14, 2006 3:42 PM

The thing is, the city is great at passing laws and terrible at enforcing them. Have you ever tried to return a bottle with a deposit on it at a drug store or bodega? You can't, but refusing to take it is against the law. Have you ever jaywalked? Every day, of course, but maybe one person has gotten a ticket for it over the past 10 years!

And yes, rechargeable batteries are ultimately more damaging to the environment when landfilled. Of coourse, the last longer, so...

Posted by: Mark Caserta on December 14, 2006 8:47 PM