The campus Department of Environmental Health and Safety and Physical Plant Recycling will officially launch an expanded UCSC Battery Recycling Program on Tuesday, April 22--Earth Day.
"The goal of the Battery Recycling Program is to make it easy and convenient for you to recycle campus-generated batteries," said April Casper, hazardous waste manager for Environmental Health and Safety. "Earth Day is the perfect day to educate the campus about the importance of the program and the impact they make when they recycle their batteries."
The campus community can look for one-gallon brown battery collection containers that have been strategically placed at 40 different locations on campus. The batteries will be collected by Physical Plant Recycling on a regular schedule. Once collected, every component of every battery will be recycled within the United States.
According to a 2002 report by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, there were more than 507 million batteries sold in California in 2001, but only 0.55 percent of those batteries were recycled. The expanded UCSC battery recycling program will help ensure all campus-generated batteries are properly recycled.
Batteries are considered hazardous because of the metals and/or other toxic or corrosive materials they contain. They are, however, potentially a valuable source of recyclable metal.
UCSC's Battery Recycling Program is for campus-generated batteries only, including 2300 Delaware and Long Marine Lab. Batteries from off campus should not be brought to campus for recycling.
For battery recycling-container locations, more information about the program, and ways to recycle your non-campus batteries, go to the Battery Recycling Program page or call the Recycling Office at ext. 9-3671.
