People use alkaline batteries for household stuff such as remote control, clock, flashlights, and others things that require electricity. However, the alkaline batteries which are the same as the name consist alkaline chemical compounds that could be toxic. Some of them could contain heavy metals compound that are very harmful for the environment or even human body.
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| Types of alkaline batteries (image is credited by https://upload.wikimedia.org) |
Daily alkaline batteries are commonly manufactured in three forms, they are double A and triple A with respectively coded as AA and AAA. The last form is the rectangular shape with nine Voltage. These three batteries are portable and operated in low voltage. Although the voltage is low, the compounds containing within them are classified hazard because of the use of heavy metals that can cause diseases to human body. Consequently, when the batteries are not utilized anymore, the huge numbers of chemical wastes from the batteries could generate environmental impact and furthermore human.
Alkaline batteries are consisted two main things which are zinc and magnesium. This alkaline batteries are categorized into two groups based on the rechargeable and un-rechargeable. Based on the compounds containing within inside, alkaline batteries are divided into primary batteries and secondary batteries. These two batteries respectively contain zinc-carbon; zinc-manganese; mercury-oxide; silver oxide and nickel-cadmium; nickel-metal hydride; lithium-ion (Almeida, Delgado, Costa, & Xara, 2006). Generally speaking, the alkaline batteries consist heavy metals which are cadmium and mercury. These two heavy metals are poisonous for human body.
The effects of heavy metals to environment and health from alkaline batteries
When the energy of the batteries is empty, mostly there are thrown and create environmental concerns. Study conducted by (Karnchanawong & Limpiteeprakan 2009) suggested that there was leaching of heavy metals generated by the alkaline batteries in disposal-land field in form of solid waste. According to the paper, the heavy metals that were analyzed found from the solid waste were cadmium, manganese, nickle, lead, zinc, arsenic and mercury.
On the other hand, heavy metals generate big impacts to the environment. According to the website www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, Wang S and Shi X reported that heavy metals disturb the cellular organelles including mitochondrial, lysosome, metabolysmms system, and detoxification system. Chemically speaking, the heavy metals tend to react actively with the cellular which also can produce severe reactive oxygen reaction which means producing carcinogenic reaction. This will happen if the heavy metals are delivered to the contamination in water, soil and air.
Therefore, organizing and managing the disposal system of alkaline batteries are important because it can damage the environmental. Therefore, leaching of the heavy metals must be prevented.
Recycling the alkaline batteries to prevent environmental impact
Alkaline batteries must be recycled based on qualified standards. According to the Department of Environmental Protection's, recycling system must be conducted in several process. For rechargeable battery, every battery must be categorized based on the chemical compounds. On the other hand, non-rechargeable batteries also must be conducted the same because of the heavy metals such as mercury.
Reference:
[1] Almeida, M. F., Delgado, J., Costa, A. C., & Xara, S. M. (2006). Characterization of spent AA household alkaline batteries. Waste Manage, 466-476.[2] Karnchanawong, S., & Limpiteeprakan, P. (2008). Evaluation of heavy metal leaching from spent household batteries disposed in municipal solid waste. Waste Management(29), 550-558.