Firstly, the positive and negative posts on a battery react directly with metal when they come in contact. This reaction causes sparks to occur which can ignite within a fire in a matter of minutes. Secondly, storage of batteries for long periods of time can also cause the casing of the battery to erode away leading the battery to leak. The leaking is actually battery acid which is very corrosive and can cause skin damage if touched, not to mention acid leaks have the potential to explode due to the acid eating through the battery’s protective lining. Lastly, throwing away batteries in the trash and/ or littering can present a whole new of set issues, mainly being the environment. When we throw away batteries they end up in the landfill, where the age process begins except when the battery leaks or explodes the acid seeps into the ground killing surrounding plant life and destroying the soil. The same can be said when you litter, but additional problems can occur when littering such as animals mistaking the batteries as food, or battery acid leaking into our drinking water.
At this point you may ask, how can I get rid of my batteries without harming myself or the environment? And that answer is recycling. Recycling our batteries ensures that we are disposing of them properly and out of harm’s way. Recycling also has a societal benefit because the batteries will be made into something else, but with fewer resources being used to mine new materials recycling simply saves money overtime. Money which will find its way into our economy and that is something that impacts every single one of us.
