don\'t waste old batteries

Located in the bustling neighborhood of Petaling Jaya District 17, it is a small singlestorey house.
At first glance, it\'s like a thorn in the eye-dozens of plastic bags piled up in the sky --
The yard was littered with tall metal barrels and cartons.
Walk in and you will feel that all this confusion is purposeful.
In the House, huge tables and shelves take up more space than they deserve, and pile up with everything imaginable: old cassette tape, shoes, pillows, mattresses, video recorders, music boxes and photo frames.
Here everything is considered to be re-
Can be used and sold to anyone interested in buying them.
In recent months, a new addition has been added to the re-listed list
Available items: cell phone battery.
\"A lot of the batteries are still working, so we\'re trying to sell them.
But it\'s hard to find buyers who have the same phone model as a specific battery model, \"said Professor Tan Puchang, who manages the environmental activity center of the battering community center.
Besides selling batteries, Professor Tan and her staff don\'t know what else the battery can do.
\"We collect them because we don\'t want people to throw them away with garbage.
Six months later, they collected only a small box of batteries.
Professor Tan said: \"Most Malaysians throw away batteries with domestic garbage . \"
\"These batteries are hazardous waste and they will eventually be landfill where their contents will leak into the soil, groundwater, streams, rivers and eventually into what we drink and take a shower
\"Professor Tan\'s concerns are valid: the battery contains cadmium, a highly toxic heavy metal that causes chronic health problems such as vomiting, stomach and liver diseases, anemia and cancer.
According to the Singapore Institute of Environmental Science and Engineering, only one CD battery can pollute 600,000 liters of water, which is the third in the Olympic Games.
Pool size.
Although Malaysians have been using mobile phones for more than a decade, efforts to recycle them have been slow and accelerated only a few years ago.
Motorola took the lead in launching its first recycling campaign in green Malaysia.
What started as a plan to recover and recycle expired walkie-talkies
In 1997, talkies and their batteries have expanded to include phones and their accessories.
Mahat Ibrahim, the company\'s director of real estate and environment for Asia Pacific, said the company was slow but encouraging, generating 700 walkie-talkies
Battery and 300 nickelcadmium (Ni-Cd)
Battery for the first three months
A year later, the number of Ni
Cd batteries grew to 4 tons.
The first batch of 7 tons (mostly walkie-talkie)
In 1999, batteries from a recycling facility in South Korea were recycled.
Since then, Motorola has collected an average of 3 kg nickel.
Through its one-month Cd battery at authorized dealers across the country.
Mahat said that although mobile phone companies have gradually stopped using Ni-
Cd batteries, many industries are not ready to cancel them yet.
\"Most mobile phones already use lithium ion (Li-ion)
The toxicity of the battery is much smaller than that of cadmium, \"Mahat said.
However, this does not mean Li
The ion battery is safe.
Lithium is a metal that is highly flammable when exposed to water and air and must be disposed of with care.
\"Heavy equipment such as cordless power tools still require cadmium-
\"Battery-based batteries last longer, are more resistant to extreme weather and are about four times cheaper than lithium-ion batteries,\" Mahat added . \". To recycle Ni-
Cd batteries, they must be crushed, ground and melted at high temperatures
Temperature chamber for evaporation, collection and curing of cadmium.
Recycled metal is used for new rechargeable batteries.
\"This procedure is highly efficient and can recover 100% of the cadmium,\" Mahat explained . \".
Nickel, iron recovered from the recycling process returned to the steel industry to produce stainless steel products, while plastic was used as fuel or made into plastic products such as furniture. V. M.
Rajan, manager of facilities, environment, health and safety at Motorola, said that among the four international companies --
The world\'s recognized battery recycling plant, only two accept batteries from the South
Southeast Asia-Societe Generale de Aaffinage Des Metaux (France (SNAM)
Kobar recycling facility in South Korea.
The other two are international metal recycling companies (Inmetco)
DONGBANG zinc in North America and northern Japan.
Asked if it was feasible to build a battery recycling plant in Malaysia, Rajan said: \"No.
A typical factory can handle 2,000 tons of batteries a year.
The supply of used batteries here is so low and inconsistent that there is no reason to own a factory.
\"Datuk Seri Law Hieng Ding, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment, recently estimated that the number of registered mobile phone users in Malaysia was between 3 and 5 million, about 2.
5 million batteries are discarded each year.
Where are these batteries?
Rajan said the garbage was eventually landfill rather than recycled because most Malaysians do not know the environmental consequences of dumping garbage without distinction.
\"The only way we can overcome this is by law requiring companies and consumers to use used products, including cell phone batteries, for recycling.
\"This system has been successfully implemented in the United States and Canada, where consumers need to replace expired rechargeable batteries with new ones.
Once consumers do their part, manufacturers can get involved.
Rechargeable Battery Recycling Company (RBRC)– a non-
Profit, a public service organization supported by more than 300 battery manufacturers and 30,000 retailers, collects batteries and sends them to Inmetco in Elwood, Pennsylvania for recycling.
Battery manufacturers support the RBRC by paying for the cost of shipping and recycling the battery.
Since 1994, RBRC has recovered more than 9,000 tons of rechargeable Ni-Cd, Li-
Ion, nickel metal hydrogen (Ni-MH)
And small sealed lead (Pb)batteries.
In Malaysia, so far, only one mobile phone company, except Motorola, has launched a comparable-
Own publicity program: Finnish phone-
Nokia\'s recovery plan.
Since October 2001, the company has collected all brands of equipment through recycling bins placed in the licensed stores and service centers in Basheng Valley, Ipoh, Penang and Johor Baru.
\"In order to start rolling, the company started offering a 20% discount coupon to redeem Nokia accessories to encourage people to use their used devices,\" Ian Broughall said . \", Environment Manager, Nokia Asia Pacific.
This effort paid off to a certain extent: as of last December, 680 kg of used phones, chargers and batteries were collected and sent to Citigroup in Singapore
Based on recycling companies.
Cell phones and chargers were recycled there and batteries were delivered to France.
Ministry of Environment, last October (DOE)
Also started its own recycling program, recruiting Alam Flora, Kualiti Alam, Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Flextronics, Maxis, Time dotCom, the zitron enterprise and the time cell as a partner program is called kempeng Kitar Semula Bateri Terpakai alimbimbit.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy said that of the 16 companies invited to join the Project Committee, 6 have never responded:
Manufacturers Siemens and Alcatel, Celcom, a mobile service provider, as well as orkanas Trading, an importer of Viscosom and the first mobile group.
DOE provides a custom collection box and determines the best place to place them, while the partner is responsible for a portion of the collection box (
As Alam Flora and Sony do)
Or provide support through advertising and promotional activities.
The Department of Energy has not yet appointed a contractor to collect batteries that will eventually be shipped to recycling facilities in France or China.
The spokesman said the logistics of the project will be completed by the end of this year.
A total of 60 garbage bins were distributed;
Many of them are housed in large shopping malls across the country.
\"So far, the response to the programme has been slow.
We have only collected about 34 kg of the batteries since last December, \"said Rozita Musib, assistant manager of environmental management at Alam Flora.
\"A way to raise awareness of the consequences of indiscriminate batteries --
Dumping is the information that the manufacturer includes the content of the product in the packaging of the product, and how to deal with it once the product has expired.
\"No matter what approach is taken, collective efforts between consumers, manufacturers and governments must be in place,\" Rozita added . \".
One drawback is that the current effort does not include other types of batteries or Ni-
Cd batteries for other appliances.
\"Collecting cell phone batteries is our starting point, but we will eventually expand the project to include more types of batteries,\" a spokesman for the Department of Energy said . \".
\"After we have identified the overall response to our plan, there are plans to force the recycling of cell phone batteries.
\"At the moment, we have to determine who will collect and ship the batteries, distribute the bins to more places, and raise awareness among Malaysians about our project,\" the spokesman added . \".