Alkaline Battery Reuse

Note, this is a work in progress. This page was drafted by John Ashcraft on 3-2-2012

= Testing =
 * Gloves should be worn.
 * Test only non-rechargable alkaline batteries.
 * A battery is considered good enough for reuse when the meter (provided by the warehouse) shows the indicator past the 2nd 'O' on good. Go/od
 * "good" batteries should be set aside for bundling and labeled as good. If these cannot be bundled immediately they should be delivered to the warehouse by the end of a shift.
 * non-rechargeable batteries that do not pass this test should be segregated, labeled and returned to the warehouse for recycling.

= Bundling =
 * Gloves should be worn.
 * Retesting batteries immediately before bundling is a good Quality control practice.
 * For ease of handling and sale batteries should be rubberbanded together in the following configurations.

Bundle Sizes

 * AAA in bundles of 7
 * AA in bundles of 7
 * C  In bundles of 4
 * D  in bundles of 3
 * 9v single

= Sales =

Labling
Used Batteries Sold As-is! These used batteries have been tested and have a “good” remaining charge. They are great for bike lights etc. Used/mismatched batteries are not recommended for expensive electronics. Use only at your own risk

= Theory =

About 15% of the alkaline batteries we pull from gizmos still have a high charge. Currently we pay about a dollar a pound to dispose of them at metro Hazardous Waste.

We have some cheap battery testers that indicate good/bad. Receiving was good at sorting batteries for reuse. The store was selling them well (bundled 5-10/$1) for a couple of weeks in 2011 until Tony put some "good" ones in a digital camera and it displayed a message that the batteries needed to be replaced.

Fancy electronics may be sensitive to batteries that are not fully charged, or mismatched pairs of batteries. Bike lights and many other electronics are not.