FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              

With Daylight Saving Time, Change the Smoke Detector Batteries – And Recycle Them
Californians Must Keep All Universal Waste, Including Batteries, Out of Household Trash

ORANGE COUNTY, March 7, 2007 - Daylight Saving Time begins this Sunday, March 11, and at the same time people engage in the ritual of changing their clocks, many also follow the recommendation to change the batteries in their smoke detectors.

But what to do with the old batteries? In California, it’s prohibited to place batteries and other “universal waste” into household trash, so Waste Management reminds our customers to be sure to recycle them.

With the rapid changes and developments in technology, there are more and more devices around our homes that require batteries to power them – and life-critical devices such as smoke detectors that require a regular battery change to ensure they are working properly. To power these tools and toys, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans purchase nearly three billion dry-cell batteries every year for radios, toys, flashlights, cellular phones, watches, laptop computers and portable power tools.

According to the U.S. EPA, on average, each American discards eight dry-cell batteries per year. Dry-cell batteries include alkaline batteries such as AAA, AA, C, D and 9V. In the recycling process, these batteries are shredded and case metals are separated.

Not included in this category are car batteries, which need to be disposed of at your local household hazardous waste disposal facility.

“In California, it’s prohibited to dispose of batteries in household trash,” said David Ross, Senior District Manager of Waste Management of Orange County. “Recycling batteries keeps heavy metals out of landfills and the air. It also saves resources because recovered plastic and metals can be used to make new batteries. They are potentially a valuable source of recyclable metal.”

A battery’s components are simple yet powerful. Inside a battery, heavy metals react with chemical electrolyte to produce the battery's power. The dry cell battery chemistry types are: alkaline, zinc carbon, nickel metal hydride, nickel cadmium, lithium ion, lithium, mercury, silver and lead acid.

“Lead acid batteries are 100 percent recyclable,” said Ross. “In fact, lead is the most recycled metal in the world today. The plastic containers and covers of old batteries are neutralized, reground and used to create new battery cases.”

Waste Management offers the following tips for recycling your batteries:

• Keep a plastic bucket in your home where your family can discard used batteries. Once the container fills up, take it to a recycling center or retailer in your community that can safely recycle the batteries.
• Start a neighborhood battery collection to help keep the batteries out of the trash and cut down on the number of trips each home has to make to a recycling center or retailer to return the used batteries.
• Set up a collection center at your workplace where employees can drop their used batteries and rotate among co-workers to take the batteries to be recycled.

The following local facilities, operated by the County of Orange, will accept universal waste such as batteries and other hazardous waste from Orange County households (no businesses). Operating hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. More information can be obtained at (714) 834-6752 or www.oclandfills.com.

• Anaheim Regional Household Hazardous Waste Collection Center (HHWCC)
  1071 N. Blue Gum Street
  Anaheim, CA
  (located between the 91 and 57 freeways on the corner of La Palma and Blue Gum)
• Huntington Beach Regional HHWCC
  17121 Nichols Street
  Huntington Beach, CA
  (located between Beach Blvd. and Gothard St. off Warner Ave. next to Rainbow Recycling and Disposal - use Gate 6)
• Irvine Regional HHWCC
  6411 Oak Canyon
  Irvine, CA
  (located off of Sand Canyon between the 5 and 405 freeways, use the same driveway as Bark Park)
• San Juan Capistrano Regional HHWCC - Prima Deshecha Landfill
  32250 La Pata Avenue
  San Juan Capistrano, CA
  (from the 5 freeway, exit Ortega Highway, go east to La Pata and turn right; or Antonio Parkway south, cross Ortega Highway, continue on La Pata Road to the landfill entrance)

Two cities serviced by Waste Management, Laguna Beach and Mission Viejo, have curbside service for household hazardous waste retrieval. Pick up can be arranged through Curbside, Inc., by calling 1-800-HHW-PKUP (449-7587).

For more information, visit www.wmorangecounty.com.

Waste Management, based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Our subsidiaries provide collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. We are also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. Our customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers throughout North America.

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