North Bay leads the charge for properly recycling household batteries

North Bay leads the charge in battery recycling When it comes to properly recycling household batteries, no other community does it better than North Bay, Ont. Eric Taschner explains.

When it comes to properly recycling batteries, no other community does it better than North Bay, Ont. The city picked up an award for its work in properly recycling dead batteries.

The city is a recipient of the ‘2023 Leader In Sustainability’ award from Call2Recycle Canada for its work in seeing dead batteries are properly disposed of.

This award is granted each year to organizations that display exceptional commitment to battery recycling – this is the second time in as many years that North Bay has earned this distinction.

“It involves everyone from our youth in our community to families to staff having the services available to be able to recycle them,” said city councillor Lana Mitchell, the chairperson of the infrastructure and operations committee.

In 2021, North Bay collected over 6,500 kg of recycled batteries. Two years later, that number then doubled – contributing to a record-breaking year at Call2Recycle of batteries were diverted from Canadian landfills. The city collected more than 13,300 kg of batteries to recycle in 2023.

“The Call2Recycle program has managed to collect almost 6,000,000 kilos across Canada,” said Call2Recycle spokesperson Charles-Antoine Dubois in an interview with CTV News.

“Each year, Canadians recycle more and more of their used batteries.”

Dubois said however there is always room for improvement, which is why Call2Recycle is launching a new ad campaign.

“It aims to educate Canadians about the best practices of recycling batteries,” he said.

There are many benefits to recycling your batteries. Batteries contain toxic chemicals like cadmium, lead, lithium, or sulfuric acid. If not disposed of properly, they can leak into soil, ecosystems and waterways and potentially make their way into the food chain.

Batteries thrown in the garbage or in the landfill can even short-circuit, overheat and be a fire danger.

“A dead battery still holds a residual charge,” Dubois said.

“So it can pose a risk if it ends up in a garbage bin in contact with a metal object.”

Experts told CTV News that when properly recycled, household batteries can be used to make all sorts of products like stainless steel appliances, bicycles or golf clubs.

Call2Reycyle has 11 battery drop-off locations in North Bay, with one of them being the Household Hazardous Waste depot on Patton Street, which has been collecting and shipping batteries for recycling for approximately 20 years.

“It doesn’t even have to cost a lot of money to have a huge impact and make a big difference,” Mitchell said.

“The support we receive from the City of North Bay helps us achieve our mission of maximizing battery diversion from the waste stream, which in turn protects wildlife, the environment and our communities.”

Next time you need to change the batteries in your smoke detector or from your TV remote, Dubois said the best thing to do is tape the ends for safety and store them in a non-metal container or zip lock bag and then drop them off at the nearest drop-off location the next time you’re out running errands.