Recycle your batteries!!

[battplus]

Wow, good price for quality! Nice tip on the rechargeables too, not only saving money, but keeping people from wasting alkalines when they just throw them in the trash. Good thing is recycling drop offs take the small common sized rechargeables, some won't take alkalines now. They claim they are "safer for landfills", I guess mercury, and other toxic metals are safe now!

[NoobySWkeeper]

The guy was probaly havin a bad day, he was just like, profanity removed it im gonna screw up the reefs and cause hazards everywhere because I had a bad day!

[battplus]

Pretty much, I agree it's mainly just laziness and having to pay to remove or dispose of them. All it takes is one call to recycling centers and they will assist or help you find a method for disposal, just takes a little extra effort.

[saltn07]

People dont know what they have til its gone, or until they destroy it...

[Nemo8710]

I def didnt knwo wthat Verizon reclycled batteries , That is very good to know. Liek teh other guy said, They get plenty of money from so the least teh coudl do it recycle my battery

[battplus]

Originally Posted by Nemo8710

I def didnt knwo wthat Verizon reclycled batteries , That is very good to know. Liek teh other guy said, They get plenty of money from so the least teh coudl do it recycle my battery

Nemo8710,

You must be on that Verizon phone with this post!

Anyway, with the economy the way it is, it definately helps to continue to do the little things! It seems that everyone still needs a cell phone and with the new phones having built in batteries, it helps to save your money and not have to buy a new battery every year like the old phones. I'm sure it has got to be helping in all aspects. Imagine less batteries to have to buy, in turn less packaging and less of those stupid little cell phone accessory kiosks trying to sell you useless plastic junk that's going to end up getting thrown out anyway.

[merkurmaniac]

Speaking of reduce, re-use, recycle... You know what gets me ??

At home depot, they recycle the pigtail fluorescents, actually probably most kinds. "here, put in it that box there...Oh, and it needs to be in a PLASTIC bag."

Huh ? Its almost like an insult that you are recycling a light bulb, and they want you to waste a plastic bag to do it. Last time, I reached in and grabbed the nearest bag, and added my bulbs to it.

I shun plastic at every turn. I buy drinks in 2 liter bottles, but every one of them gets recycled after it gets processed by my dog. She chews the caps off after I crank them on as tight as possible. When at Walmart buying my soda, I tell them to use as few bags as possible, and none for the bottles. They go from cart to car and from car to work (in a card board box.) Much less to throw away. SOmetimes I feel like a guy who doesn't believe in the technical innovation called the bag. heh heh.

[coketech]

It is so true tho, people just go mad on bags and throwaway items.
Here in New Zealand customers in supermarkets get charged 5cents for each bag they want to use and it has seen a huge drop in plastic bag waste, all because something that was 'free' now has value!

[macktab]

Seems it is better to use rechargebles (more heavy metals) and dispose of (eventually) through a recycling program. But additional recharger plastics/mining is a result.

Here is an interesting article link
http://geology.com/articles/rare-earth-elements/

[battplus]

Great link, excellent reading info on this topic.

[Robka]

Originally Posted by coketech

It is so true tho, people just go mad on bags and throwaway items.
Here in New Zealand customers in supermarkets get charged 5cents for each bag they want to use and it has seen a huge drop in plastic bag waste, all because something that was 'free' now has value!

I have visited your beautiful country and wish the USA was as progressive, but we are trying. I heard that Washington D.C. started charging for plastic bags and they have seen a 70% + drop in the use of them

[speakerguy]

Is there a place to recycle/dispose of non-rechargeable batteries? You know, the regular ones.

There is no need to recycle standard alkaline batteries. Toxic heavy metals were eliminated from their manufacture in the mid 1990's (the primary element of concern was mercury). The technology does not currently exist to make recycling alkaline batteries cost-effective. As a result fewer places are accepting them and most any place that does take them ends up throwing them away on their own. From the Duracell website:

Alkaline batteries can be safely disposed of with normal household waste. Due to concerns about mercury in the municipal solid waste stream, Duracell has voluntarily eliminated all of the added mercury from its alkaline batteries since 1993 — while maintaining the performance you demand. Our alkaline batteries are composed primarily of common metals — steel, zinc and manganese — and do not pose a health or environmental risk during normal use or disposal.

And from the Energizer website:

Most everyday use batteries are alkaline and lithium, which in most states can be disposed of via your normal waste management process. This is possible because many years ago Energizer led the industry in eliminating heavy metals, such as mercury, from our products. Therefore, these products don’t contain any hazardous materials, as classified under federal EPA guidelines.

Still, they do end up taking up space in landfills, so switching to low-self discharge rechargable nickel metal hydride batteries like the Sanyo Eneloops are a good idea.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Ryan

The consumer is powerful, but haven't you ever heard of corporate welfare? The government DOES have a huge hand in the availability of "eco-friendly" products.
Just ask anyone running a mom and pop business when Wal-mart was PAID BY THE US GOVT to open up, and then paid AGAIN to undercut all the competition.
We're the ones losing- The freedom of the consumer is only as good as his options to consume.

wow interesting. good thing i dont shop at walmart, the freaks and weird looking people pretty much keep me from going back, but this is an even better reason.

[larrypoe]

funny how the pot calls the kettle black :/.......for every person who thinks a tree shouldnt be cut down theres another that thinks that rock, fish, or sand in your tank should have been left in the ocean

for every save the whale or save the owl theres makes there living fishing the seas or running a sawmill.

the PETA nut job who screams for more donations to save the kitty, kills more animals in a year than a hunter does in his lifetime.

the fur is murder whack jobs carry a sign made from cut down a trees, while wearing a leather belt or shoes

[sawcreatives]

The original picture is not showing up for me?

[xtinataguba]

this is sad. we should be responsible in throwing our batteries, and right there's a recycling center for that. by not disposing it in a proper place can harm our environment, maybe we can't see the harmful effects right now, but in the future? we should think about it.

[benjamindodson]

yeah! Let's help protect the environment in our own little ways. Everything is possible with a little creativity!

[NewOne81]

Holy continual post resurrection batman

[NewOne81]

Just noticed this was a sticky, as i was, carry on.

[Innovation]

Great thread, a lot of very interesting information. One thing I notice a trend in is the emotional part of us destroying this planet. People get sad and feel sorry for ourselves like it's too late, we need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves! If we took the effort we put into feeling sad and helpless into actively solving problems the reversing effects on this problem would be 100x stronger! I think we should start with our hobby, CB livestock is a great start, Gulf Coast Ecosystems has done a great job supplying macroalgae, even though they collect from the wild. But since it is on a relatively small scale it's not a large issue. Just today I found out that Paul Watson is also after the marine aquarium trade, and much of the information that is posted on there website is false. Such as:

In captivity, some yellow tangs may survive a year or more, but the vast majority will likely be killed off within the first month or two of capture from shipping and other stressors, starvation and hobbyist mistakes.

or:

In hobby tanks, most wildlife will die within weeks or months from stress related disease; from cramped or failed environments; from improper food; and, generally because the vast majority of those attempting to keep them are too inexperienced.

This last quote especially irritates me, as that is nowhere near true. If they actually looked at what many members of this hobby are doing, they would realize that we are very likely the ones who are going to save reefs. We keep exotic fish from across the globe, and the rate of new species being bred is rapidly increasing. Once someone does it on a large scale, we can easily propagate almost any species and "restock a reef", so to speak.

--

I don't know about any of you, but I use every plastic container I find for something. I use water and soda bottles for brine shrimp hatching, cleaned out milk jugs to store de-chlorinated RO/DI water, and I've even used plastic water bottles filled with water as eco friendly light bulbs. I also use re-usable bags at stores, rather than ask for "paper or plastic". I've built several rafts out of water bottles (that worked somewhat well I might add!) and on top of that all, I use organic gardening supplies, natural pesticides, I eat organically, and I am close to feeding my fish and coral organically as well.

On another note, San Francisco is close to banning plastic water bottles!

[afishionado]

Innovation. Unfortunately, those two quotes you quoted are true, not false as you imagine ...

Sure, there are a few top notch, highly informed/educated/skilled reef aquarists in this hobby and on this board ... However, the truly quality ReefKeepers are few and far between and this board, our interesting hobby in general, is mostly made up of wannabes and careless/selfish individuals who falsely think/believe they are more informed/educated/skilled than they really, truly are ...

It is these people who impractically/impulsively make purchases which they have no business making, whatsoever, and who constitute the bulk of those negative statistics related to our industry ... Along with careless/uninformed noobs, who are IMO essentially one in the same with the aforementioned group of morons ... That place the proverbial black eye squarely on the face of our hobby and will inevitably cause the restrictions that will ruin things for us truly advanced, thoughtfully informed, skilled ReefKeepers !

We need to stop bickering amongst ourselves and band together against these wannabe reef aquarists who make our hobby look bad with their selfish/careless, uninformed, impulsive, moronic decisions/purchases ... It's about time we took a legitimate stand against these jokers, in order to save our hobby from their inevitable destruction ... I've been standing up for what I believe in for years now, and recently "fired the employer" on a consultative/reef system design position as he was the epitome of a wannabe reef aquarist who's a completely selfish, moronic idiot with no self control when it comes to making the worst impulsive purchases/decisions I've ever seen in all my years involved with the many facets of this "hobby" ...

This nincompoop purchases Blue Linkia Starfish (<1yr old "bare bottom!" DT), Hawaiian cleaner wrasses (guy can't even correctly pronounce wrasse), Potters Angels (to place in his disgusting/impractical QT tank that I personally wouldn't house freshwater danios in for future "use"), and to top it all off WILD Acropora colonies (when he cant even keep LPS colonies alive for more than a couple months max) ... All AFTER being EXPLICITLY told/informed that they would not fare well in his current half in the can wannabe reef system ... ALL the above, multiples of some, bite the dust quickly, as unfortunately expected, and they're either replaced AGAIN and/or made LAME, idiotic excuses for why they died on him as if it was their on and/or the suppliers fault ... None of said lame excuses due to anything he did, naturally. Guys a complete/utter TOOL. My expertise was initially requested/seemed out when one of his tangs (in a small footprint 90G) was rapidly diminishing from HLLE ... Went over a few variables of why this could be occurring, on of them being from over/misuse of activated carbon. "No, of course not, it's fine" (classic wannabe reef tool response) ... Yet, come to find out, the first time I went there in person to get to the bottom of the issue I discovered 2.5 "LBS" (yes thats pounds) of activated carbon in a media bag designed for public aquaria usage ! "Oh that, oh I was using more than what was needed because I was trying to reduce my nitrates" ... You realize activated carbon doesn't reduce nitrate levels, right (I get a deer in the headlights, followed by a deer who is a shameless BSer) "Yea, they're not really that bad Im just trying to keep them in check". So I instantly ask where the NO3 test kit is hiding, turns out NO3 was >150, it maxed out the damn test kit ! The above was just the beginning and looking back, over the course of the couple months I "attempted" to help this self righteous/unknowingly contradictory/hypocritical idiot, it was soon overshadowed by increasingly worse decisions/purchases/excuses he actually thought were flying. All at the expense of helplessly dependent reef animals, which lost their LIVES!, their existence in this World, at the hands of an uninformed, careless/selfish wannabe tool ...

It's guys/people like this that we all need to work together (all of us that care about our hobby) to call out and give them the hint that their BS isn't welcome ... Whether its this aforementioned despicable/wannabe tool I was talking about here or someone similar that you know, whether on here, in your local reef club, wherever.

We either take it upon ourselves to cleanup/self regulate our hobby, thru peer pressure, or I can personally guarantee you (from my many years in Marine Biology) that the FEDS/Conservation societies WILL clean it up/regulate it for us, in the form of RESTRICTIONS ! It's not far off either ...

Wake up everyone, help out ! We need to self regulate these selfish/careless, fake wannabe toolbags, lest they ruin it for all if us advanced/knowledgable/skilled reefers !

[tigerjace]

It's not right but some ppl rather take the quick and easy way of disposing of things rather than the responsible way because it's less convenient.

[ExpertMarine]

Shoot man, I get a check for having spent batteries picked up at my home... I gladly take peoples used car batteries...

[Lemontree]

Thank you for this topic. I'm posting this comment because I am mostly a lurker and even though I have paid dues, I cannot post in some places because I haven't had 50 posts. So, here's a post! And I sincerely thank you all for being environmentally minded and responsible for these animals we care for.

[jdl242]

Originally Posted by Lemontree

Thank you for this topic. I'm posting this comment because I am mostly a lurker and even though I have paid dues, I cannot post in some places because I haven't had 50 posts. So, here's a post! And I sincerely thank you all for being environmentally minded and responsible for these animals we care for.

Yes, take care of the animals. "Lurker", ya me too!