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Back in my day, I worked at Bestbuy and if you have ever been in one, you may notice that we have a "recycle" area in the front of the store. It is a separated
by apacheCamel 6y ago
Back in my day, I worked at Bestbuy and if you have ever been in one, you may notice that we have a "recycle" area in the front of the store. It is a separated bin, labelled with "wires", "cds", "batteries", etc. The one that always confused me the most was "batteries" since almost EVERY time they would empty that bin into our recycle bin in the back, they would dump the batteries into the trash because almost all of them were non-lithium-ion. My manager said we couldn't recycle regular batteries so they needed thrown away and sorting through the absolute mound of batteries was too much to do.
I know we would receive laptop batteries, phone batteries, and other rechargeables but they never made it into the bin. I hear now, anything with a screen costs money to recycle at Bestbuy. They really seem to be taking a step in the wrong direction. Better labelled bins, and easier access to recycling areas will make it easier for the average person to recycle, which in my opinion, is a net gain for us all.
- schoolornot 6y agoThis only applies to New Yorkers but there is a law on the books that requires retailers to accept used batteries of the same type they sell for recycling. I bring mine to a local Apple store and they gladly take them every time. Often I have a PC battery or two in the bag too.
- est31 6y agoThe same rule exists in Germany as well: distributors, if they sell batteries, also have to accept them. Same goes for (fluorescent) light bulbs. I think this rule is quite nice as it saves cost for waste disposal, using existing distributor infrastructure.
- sukilot 6y agoAre they required to recycle those batteries, or merely "accept" them?
- usrusr 6y agoSpeaking for Germany: accept, as in paying for proper disposal (which may or may not involve recycling). The main goal is keeping batteries out of regular refuse streams.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y agoYour story highlights a common issue with recycling: so much of it is virtue signalling bullshit. I get to feel good about separating my trash (and somehow like my consumerism wasn't a net negative anyway), but it still goes all to the same dump. Of course not all recycling is BS as this article shows. But we should change the automatic narrative of "recycling=good, landfill=bad" because it encourages practices that are wasteful both for the economy and environment.
- dmd 6y agoFor 4+ years when I lived in a Philadelphia suburb, we were required to separate recycling from trash, and further into 3 different categories... and then the truck would come and right in front of us dump the trash and all recycling into the same truck all together.
- sukilot 6y agoRequired how?
- dmd 6y agoTown ordinance, unless I misunderstand your question.
- stevep98 6y agoThe truck that collects my garbage has two sections. The driver selects which section the bin will dump into. It’s difficult to see from the curb what’s going on. Are you sure this wasn’t the case for you?
- dmd 6y agoYes, very sure. Even talked to them about it once- they said there were plans to have recycling facilities later but currently (in 2008) it all just went the same place.
- Reedx 6y ago
- ZeroGravitas 6y agoThis is one of those problems that the US can't solve because they keep electing people who don't want to solve it. In other places they just mandate this stuff.
- ckocagil 6y agoHave you tried replacing a phone battery recently? It involves using hot air to soften the glue, a lot of manual labor, unplugging wires, and carefully replacing the battery. Then you need to glue everything back together and pray the device works. There's a straightforward solution to this and the recycling problem: 1. Mandate that every mass produced device with a li-ion battery have a simple mechanism to remove the battery 2. Add a very small tax to each device with such battery (in the order of cents) 3. Pay the same amount back to whoever brings the battery to a recycling plant There you go. This system has only one knob (the amount paid per battery) and by tweaking it you can adjust the incentive to recycle. You sit back and let the market sort out the details. Not to mention that this would extend the lifetime of phones by making it easy to replace the battery.
- doiwin 6y agoYou won't have to use hot air if you go with a phone with replaceable battery. They are fewer these days, but they still exist: https://www.productchart.com/smartphones/sets/3 https://www.productchart.com/smartphones/sets/3
- judge2020 6y agoAre there any tradeoffs with easily replaceable batteries? Maybe water resistance, thinness, compactness, etc?
- drrotmos 6y agoYou can still make a device with easily replaceable batteries water resistant (or even water proof), but it's easier (read: less bulky) to do it with a non-replaceable battery. Compactness is definitely a major tradeoff though.
- guerrilla 6y agoYeah, my Galaxy Xcover is IP68 (dust/water resistant) and the battery is trivial to replace. I think the situation is the same for CAT and other rugged phones.
- MiroF 6y agoThis actually might be a sign of improvement... I think increasingly we are putting restrictions on recycling so that we actually do recycle them. Until recently, I think quite a bit of recycling is a sham. I've spent a bit of time as a hobby tracking down recycling (in my high school growing up, etc) and effectively none of it made it to actually being recycled.
- pbhjpbhj 6y agoGood bit of fraud by a major retailer there. That sort of thing needs serious punishment.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- CalChris 6y agoIt will cost me $49 to replace the battery on my iPhone SE. Moreover Apple will recycle the battery. This seems fair. Doing it myself would require $34 in parts plus tools and skill I don’t have. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+SE+Battery+Replacement/61303 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+SE+Battery+Replacement/6...
- X6S1x6Okd1st 6y agoThe issue isn't whether the marginal cost of replacing it is reasonable, the issue is why does it need tools and skills that people don't already have.
- chrisseaton 6y ago> the issue is why does it need tools and skills that people don't already have Because these are extremely lightweight, compact, water-resistant devices. There isn't room for old-style battery compartments. Every micrometer is squeezed here.
- pantalaimon 6y agoWe are talking about 1-2mm difference here. What’s the big deal?
- chrisseaton 6y agoThat sounds like an awful lot to me on a phone that's only a few millimetres thick.
- CalChris 6y ago7.6 mm to be precise.
- dev_tty01 6y agoWhy? What evidence do you have that tools and skills are more important than marginal cost? It is less convenient, I agree with that, but the bulk of users live close to an Apple store. The other approach is overnight shipping service that Apple makes really easy to do. Call an 800 number, get an overnight box from Apple, send it off. The other benefit is that Apple will make sure they all get recycled. I don't know this as a fact, but it seems that most of the folks who want to jump on this as evidence that Apple is evil are the same people who are willing to spend a bit more for greener solutions in general. Having Apple replace and recycle is greener than having millions of users tossing old batteries into trash cans. (Don't kid yourself, this will happen if iPhone batteries are easily replaceable.) Yes, there is some marginal cost for this ecological advantage. But it seems like a good tradeoff to me at least. My 6s is 5 years old. Had the battery replaced once so far. Going strong running the latest OS. $49 for 5 years of use. Not too bad. All in all, I just have a hard time understanding all the emotional anger over this issue. It is just not a big deal in practice (in my experience). I guess it has been a problem for others, although I wonder if the angry folks actually have iPhones. To each their own. Battery replacement costs and recycling info: https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/service/battery-power https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/service/battery-powe... https://www.apple.com/batteries/service-and-recycling/ https://www.apple.com/batteries/service-and-recycling/
- paulcole 6y agoThe truth nobody wants to hear is that you can recycle all the batteries you want but the planet is still fucked. Live in a small home/apartment, don’t eat meat or dairy products, don’t drive or fly in planes, and don’t have kids. That’s how someone who lives in a modern developed nation can “do their part” for the planet. I live that way but almost nobody else is willing. Wringing your hands that batteries get thrown out instead of recycled is like complaining the toilet is running when the house is on fire.
- myself248 6y agoDoes this mean that your manager was throwing NiCd batteries (many old power tools, in particular) into the trash?
- novok 6y agoYou're not supposed to even throw alkaline batteries into normal trash AFAIK so giving it to someone who can throw it into the 'right kind of trash' is useful. Most people, including me, don't want to figure out whatever special place we are supposed to drive to drop off our batteries, so it's nicer to do it while your shopping.
- Consultant32452 6y agoAt some point it'll just become lucrative to mine old dumps. Until that point, it's probably not worth it.
- lazyant 6y agoIn Canada we have a recycling fee for computer stuff and tires for example. In some cases (tire "recycle" centre) it was found they were just dumping them. (Please somebody correct me if I remember this wrong). Gentle reminder "recycle" is the last thing to do in the "reduce, reuse, recycle".