Dan DeMarco, Whitney Croskery, and Joe Ammerata, of St. Joseph - Scollard Hall, are collecting batteries for the Used Household Battery Competition. St. Joseph-Scollard Hall won last year's competition by collecting 1,956 pounds of batteries.
Dan DeMarco, Whitney Croskery, and Joe Ammerata, of St. Joseph - Scollard Hall, are collecting batteries for the Used Household Battery Competition. St. Joseph-Scollard Hall won last year's competition by collecting 1,956 pounds of batteries. ____________________________________________________________ Want to keep old used-up batteries out of the landfill?
Nipissing Environmental Watch has a program to help you do just that.
Details are included in the following news released issued by the group around 5:30 p.m. today: ____________________________________________________________
Third Annual Battery Collection Competition
It seems that everything runs on batteries now, from children's toys and radios to cell phones and smoke alarms. So what are we supposed to do with all of those dead batteries. It might cross your mind that tossing them into the garbage doesn't seem quite right, but used batteries cannot be put into the blue box. So, what are we supposed to do with them?
Residents of North Bay, Ontario, have an easy solution; give the used batteries to a local high school student. High school students in North Bay and vicinity are competing to see which school can collect the most used household batteries.
Nipissing Environmental Watch is hosting its third annual Used Household Battery Collection Competition. The competition is held to divert used batteries from the local landfill site and to educate students about hazardous household waste. The school that collects the most batteries per student will win $500. The second place school will win $200. The competition ends on Friday, May 28, 2004.
There are many kinds of household batteries, but all of them contain materials that are dangerous to the environment. Used household batteries should never be put into the garbage or blue box. Depending on the type, batteries may contain acid, cadmium, mercury, copper, zinc, lead, manganese, nickel, lithium, and other dangerous materials. If disposed of in a landfill site, the chemicals and heavy metals from the batteries may leach into our ground and surface water systems. Used household batteries should always be taken to a hazardous waste depot.
Organizer Trevor Schindeler says that, "The battery collection competition is a way to get hundreds of students and their friends and family doing something to help the environment. And, if someone stops throwing batteries into the garbage, he or she will probably think twice before putting other household hazardous waste into the garbage."
All types of household batteries including AA, AAA, C, D, 6-volt, and 9-volt batteries, both rechargeable and non-rechargeable, are being collected as well as button batteries, such as are used in watches and hearing aids.
The collected batteries are taken to the Household Hazardous Waste Depot in North Bay. From there the batteries are transported to a secure hazardous waste landfill site.
In the last competition students collected a total of 2,465 kilograms of batteries. The winning school alone, St. Joseph - Scollard Hall of North Bay, collected some 887 kilograms.
The Battery Collection Competition is generously funded by TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.
For further information, please contact Trevor Schindeler at 474-7601 ext. 5407.
