Kathryn Nijssen and Maya de Boer

In today’s fast pace world electronics have become a huge part of our day to day lives. Whether it be our laptop or cell phone or the music player we’re plugged into, they all require an energy source, one that has increasingly become batteries. Statistics show that in North America close to 200,000 tons of sealed cell batteries are used each year. Studies show that in Canada alone 500 million batteries will be thrown out by 2010 which is an increase of 153 million since 2004. Unfortunately the large majority of these batteries end up in our municipal landfills where they slowly degrade causing the leakage of toxic heavy metals into our environment. At Dalhousie University sustainable battery recycling has become an important initiative. Since its inception in 1997, the battery recycling programme has recycled 10.76 tonnes of batteries. On a national scale the Dalhousie initiative is a uniquely successful programme. In contrast, on a global scale Canadian battery recycling leaves much to be desired.