Battery disposal question

I bought an older Canon not long ago, and inside was a (dead) EPX625. I can't find any brand name on it, just the declaration that it was made in the USA. Am I right in assuming that this is a mercury battery, not a later substitute? If so, what is the best way to dispose of it? One of my local libraries has a bucket for collecting batteries for disposal, and I routinely use that for lithium, but I wasn't sure if it was OK for this one to be handled in the same way. I have no idea how exactly they go about it.

Yes, that sounds like an Eveready mercury battery. Unless the collection bucket specifically says that they don't handle certain types of batteries, I would think that it's OK. You might check with your city/local government for more specific information. Where I live, there is a hazardous material recycling drop-off facility that takes batteries, chemicals, etc. I save my old batteries in glass jars and take the there once a year. Edited January 12, 2019 by m42dave

+1

The only reason I wasn't sure was because it has been so long since Mercury batteries were manufactured that I didn't know if they'd be set up to handle it separately if that were needed. Now that I think about it, I still have an old mercury switch thermostat sitting around somewhere--I should probably contact the city and find out where to drop that off as well. Two birds with one stone.

Thanks for confirming that it is an actual Mercury battery also.

We used to play with liquid mercury in chemistry lessons. There was also a great open bath of the stuff in a lab where I once worked. Nobody died!

 

How things have changed. Just chuck the thing in the battery recyke jar and walk away.

We used to play with liquid mercury in chemistry lessons. There was also a great open bath of the stuff in a lab where I once worked. Nobody died!

 

I was...rather unhappy...a year or so back when I "gave" someone an 8lb bottle(not very big, mind you) out of department stock to use in their schlenk line bubblers, but with the explicitly stated understanding that I wanted it back(dirty or clean) if they were no longer using it.

 

When I visited the lab a few months later, I saw that they had ditched all their mercury bubblers for oil. I asked about the mercury, and was told that they had disposed of it-including over half the bottle that they had't used. They acted like they'd done me a big favor.

 

I'm down to a single 1lb bottle on the shelf, plus several ounces that I've recovered from broken thermometers, manometers, and other devices. It's not going out of my sight...

We used to play with liquid mercury in chemistry lessons. There was also a great open bath of the stuff in a lab where I once worked. Nobody died!

 

How things have changed. Just chuck the thing in the battery recyke jar and walk away.

I understand that, I just don't see any reason to add it to the landfill if I can have it properly dealt with.

 

I was...rather unhappy...a year or so back when I "gave" someone an 8lb bottle(not very big, mind you) out of department stock to use in their schlenk line bubblers, but with the explicitly stated understanding that I wanted it back(dirty or clean) if they were no longer using it.

 

When I visited the lab a few months later, I saw that they had ditched all their mercury bubblers for oil. I asked about the mercury, and was told that they had disposed of it-including over half the bottle that they had't used. They acted like they'd done me a big favor.

 

I'm down to a single 1lb bottle on the shelf, plus several ounces that I've recovered from broken thermometers, manometers, and other devices. It's not going out of my sight...

Interesting, I didn't realize it would be a pain for labs to get hold of. Is there probably someone local to me who would want the thermostat to recover the mercury from? Assuming that is, I can remember where I set it safely aside!

Interesting, I didn't realize it would be a pain for labs to get hold of. Is there probably someone local to me who would want the thermostat to recover the mercury from? Assuming that is, I can remember where I set it safely aside!

 

I think we could buy it if we had a real need for it, although I'd expect it to be pricey and our director of Environmental Health and Safety(who I talk to a couple of times a week usually) would probably throw a fit if she found out we were buying more.

 

IN GENERAL, if someone needs some there's usually enough here and there in circulation that they can find what they need. We can't surplus stuff that has mercury in it(not just thermometers, but also monometers, barometers, bubblers, and other oddball stuff like McLeod gauges), so I usually save it if given the chance. EHS has a rather different view on it, and would rather just dispose of it when the equipment is decommissioned than save it, even though disposal of what can amount to a few pounds is expensive.

 

Just different philosophies on it-the stash I keep is in good condition, properly labeled containers and also in secondary containment so there's not much spill risk.

 

I think EHS, though, looks at a bottle sitting on the shelf or especially some in-service as a spill waiting to happen. In general, small spills(the amount in a thermometer) aren't a big deal as long they're properly cleaned up(we use zinc powder to amalgamate it then seal anything that comes into contact with it-gloves, sponges, etc in a container that's disposed of still sealed) and don't go down the drain. Once properly cleaned up, the documentation on it that it was done by someone trained in mercury clean up(I'm the designated person in our building since I'm the only one who does it often enough to remember all the steps to do) is pretty straightforward. A spill much larger than that amount, or even a single bead going down the drain(even though it realistically is going to fall into the trap and stay there until someone removes it) involves a lot of paperwork, self-reporting to the EPA, and possibly a fine.

understand that, I just don't see any reason to add it to the landfill if I can have it properly dealt with.

 

- There's almost definitely more mercury in an amalgam tooth filling than there is in a single PX625 cell. So perhaps they'll tape my mouth up with 'hazmat' tape before my funeral?

 

I suspect that if you walk into any waste-disposal facility with your single 1cm sized PX625, they'll just laugh in your face. What do you think they're going to do with it? Individually pry it open in an hermetically sealed lab and chemically neutralise the mercuric oxide? I don't think so!

 

Landfill is its destination. Like it or not. Or maybe they will do the right thing and ship it to California or the Philippines to tip it down an abandoned cinnabar mine.

Edited January 14, 2019 by rodeo_joe|1

Here is what one company does:

 

How are Batteries Recycled? | Battery Solutions

Many cities have hazardous waste collection. i save up all the categories, including

fluorescent lamps, mercury batteries, NiCd batteries, and some others, and bring them

at once. A trip just for one battery is a lot of work.

 

They never make comments that the amount isn't worth it, just take the stuff.

Except for locations that have hazardous waste collection I'd guess that when mercury cells were made that they had much less impact on environment than all the improperly discarded fluorescent lamps. I've watched people toss old CFL's in the trash without regard to the mercury inside. I think knowledgeable photographers would be more careful with mercury cells.

We used to play with liquid mercury in chemistry lessons. There was also a great open bath of the stuff in a lab where I once worked. Nobody died!

 

Yeah, it's the vapors you should be worried about. A decade ago I read an article about a woman who had tried to commit suicide by injecting Mercury.....didn't work.

Nobody died!

 

Of course, they did get a little shaky :( LINK

Last I heard, the coal used to power incandescent lamps contains, and emits when burned, more mercury than in fluorescent lamps that would replace them.

 

Not that I think people shouldn't dispose of them properly, but the amount of Hg is pretty small in lamps.

 

Mercury switches and thermostats that use mercury for the switching have a fair amount, though.

I suspect batteries are somewhere in between.

 

Some mercury compounds get metabolized, in the bad way, much faster than vapor.

In the space of a little over 150 years, just in the field of photography alone, we've gone from merrily using mercury vapour (in Daguerreotypes), cyanide, ether, gun-cotton, ammonia and various other noxious substances, to quaking in our boots at the thought of a bit of mercuric oxide locked in a tiny metal cylinder. What a society!

 

I'm not in favour of bringing back hazardous practises like felt-making using vats of mercury, but I think we really need to get a sense of proportion.

 

We could start by getting more people with scientific and technical knowledge into our governing bodies, instead of politics, classics, economics and history graduates.

 

Otherwise we end up being told to be afraid of our own shadows, and with idiotic legislation like banning Borax sales on the grounds of some dubious research done on rats! And of being at the mercy of powerful lobbyists with less than altruistic agendas. Because I'm pretty sure the recycling industry is quite lucrative, and not quite as 'green' as it would like us to think it is.

 

I see that the 'explanation' of how batteries are recycled, is actually no such thing and tells you nothing about what eventually happens to any hazardous waste.

Edited January 21, 2019 by rodeo_joe|1