Disposing of old lithium ion 18650 cells

[Roger Hayter]

I don't think fire is an issue except with some Lithium cells. Mercury, which is quite insidiously toxic and can leak into groundwater used to be used in some button cells,[1] but I don't think it is any more. But it is largely metal toxicity which is seen as a risk when batteries are disposed of in landfill or incinerated. I must admit I am pretty ignorant about which current batteries present a serious risk.

[1] Button cells can kill small children if swallowed, so however they are disposed of they should be well packaged so they can't fall out in the house or in the street.

[Max Demian]

If a mobile phone catches fire bunging it in a bucket of water is the recommended remedy.

[charles]

and yesterday morning at 5am, the hotel fire alarm went off. Understood to be caused by a "charging phone". Not much fun outside in sub-zero temperatures for 40 minutes.

[Theo]

There's at least three fire risks:

Cells that are unstable and liable to catch fire in the wrong environmental conditions like heat or pressure - eg lithium ion cells (Galaxy Note 7 etc)

Cells composed of material that catches fire on exposure to air. eg

Cells that get hot if shorted - eg alkalines - and whatever they might short through catching fire.

I could well imagine that waste compaction etc could cause one or more of these risks.

Theo

[Huge]

[22 lines snipped]

I'm afraid the last two times I've been in a hotel and the fire alarm's gone off, I've stayed in bed. Foolish, I know, but it's been a false alarm so often before.

[charles]

but, think of that hotel beside Loch Lomond. I suspect that's why 2 people died.

[Andrew]

There have been incidents where batteries in the normal rubbish cause fires inside the bin lorry when it crushes the contents down.

[charles]

Isn't there a hillside in Wales which was a used tyre dump which is still smordering after many years?

[Andrew]

The argument applies to plastic straws too. Which is why they are always the most frequently encountered plastic waste on shorelines.

every supermarket has a waste battery collection tub.

And there are also things called rechargeable batteries to avoid single-use alkaline batts.

[charles]

my hearing aids don't take rechargeable batteries

[pamela]

I'm not so organised that I would put old batteries to one side and remember to carry them to the supermarket when I visit (I don't have a car). It's enough to remember to take the shopping list and often it gets left behind.

I use lots of rechargeables but they can't replace single-use batteries in all situations. I use rechargeables for cost saving but you suggest I might choose them for their greenness. However, I have never let recycling affect a purchasing decision and never expect to - other than to avoid goods with recycled materials as I find they're often substandard.

Am I being unwittingly delinquent? I tend to see greens as being in a state of chronic mild worry, alert to how any action or inaction on their part might affect the environment and ready to take all sort of complicated action to solve problems that, to me, don't seem to be there.

[Tim+]

As someone who collects rubbish from our local beach on a daily basis I have to say I think that?s complete bollocks. Plastics straws on our beaches make up about 0.0001% of plastic waste.

I think it a lie being spread so that we can all think that we?re saving the planet by refusing plastic straws, very like the arguments for unplugging phone chargers. Greenwash nonsense.

We need to do a *lot* more to reduce plastic waste on beaches than just refuse plastic straws.

Tim

[Tim Streater]

SWMBO set aside one of those tubs that the soluble sachets of detergent for washing machines comes in. Handy size for batteries and printer cartridges. I fill it up and then try to remember to take it to the supermarket. If it's full enough to warrant emptying at the next supermarket visit, just put it by the front door.

I wouldn't have said so.

Unclear to me why we don't just put the whole lot in incinerators and so generate some volts.

[Tim Streater]

*We* don't need to. The Chinese, however, do. Apparently in rural China there is little in the way of regular rubbish collection and the rivers get used instead.

[Tim+]

Um, I have never come across any waste with Chinese writing.

I?m sure you?re right though that many countries are far worse than us in their waste management but here in the UK much of the population still has an appalling disregard for the environment. Get on a bike or run down some country lanes and you?ll find hedgerows and ditches choked with litter.

Tim

[Tim Streater]

Oh I agree entirely. I initially saw this some 60 years ago, when my father (further to the right than anyone here) was first teaching me that rubbish generated while out and about got taken home for disposal

- or put in a bin if there was one.

Then we went on holiday to a beautiful little spot between Loch Laggan and Kingussie (prolly on the A86) where we camped. Nearby there was a rusting pile of tin cans. Which started being added to a day or so later, when a family of Glaswegians turned up. We moved on.

[T i m]

Thank you for doing so on behalf of all of us btw. ;-)

OOI, what do you see the most of? Bottles and rope / nets I'm guessing?

Who needs a straw anyway, other than kids I mean?

I only do so for safety.

Well, a million x 1W is still a MW. ;-)

I think it's the smaller bits that are the problem that wouldn't be 'collect' by anything other than the digestive systems of fish and I'm guessing some of it would have been broken off the bigger stuff?

Cheers, T i m

[Tim Lamb]

Yes. Most having come out of the passenger window. Think about it!

[Tim+]

How do you draw that conclusion? Do you think stuff dropped out of the drivers window just vanishes?

Tim

[Tim Lamb]

Ah! Well, except for particularly narrow lanes, it would end up on the road surface.

Most of what ends up in my roadside fields has come over the hedge:-(