Team 1288 RAVEN Robotics will be hosting a battery collection for all teams; we will be collecting any and all old, useless and worn out batteries that are just taking up space. Our wish is to make sure these batteries are properly recycled in order to protect our environment and promote the proper and safe disposal of all hazardous materials for FIRST teams and others in the community.
Team 1288 will be collecting more than just robot batteries; we will be collecting computer, car, AA, AAA, D, cell phone and other batteries as well. Any batteries anyone has that have fallen into disuse and are potential dangers to our environment, we will collect. We will be collecting the batteries at our regional, in St. Louis.
Many technologies are criticized for polluting the air and water supply, but if we work together we can reduce the carbon footprint of the FRC and protect our world for future generations so that our children and their children can also compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition.
Battery pollution is increasing every year due to the increase in handheld and mobile technologies. Batteries produce up to 80% of the mercury runoff from landfills. :ahh: If we don’t do something to help curb this future disaster, then we are all to blame.
We would also like to encourage teams at other regionals to do something similar to this so that they can continuously fulfill the FIRST vision, “By creating a world where science and technology are celebrated.” (Dean Kamen)
Maybe some teams could host perhaps a medicine drop off since those are fairly portable pieces of science and technology.
We fix people’s computers for a low fee compared to professional companies to help pay for travel costs. As an additional benefit we could be very well stopping people from throwing away an old computer. If you have experts on computers in your team or area willing to do this you could try computer clean ups & fixes.
1073 won’t be in St. Louis, but 1.) I would personally (just speaking for myself) love to send you a bunch of old batteries that have been accumulating in a drawer from our xbox 360 controllers among other things and 2.) would you be interested in us setting up a drop box at our regionals for you? We’re going to GSR and Connecticut.
Re: Cheerleader1073
2) I can talk to my team at our meeting tomorrow and see what they think about the drop box at other regionals if there isn’t a team hosting one there already (we wre hoping to inspire other teams to do the same as we were but at their regionals).
You can send all the batteries you want to us! The more the merrier, we just want to get the message around!
Thanks! I’ll post back by Wednesday evening!
Re: ZanChau
That’s a pretty good idea, I’d still need to run it all by my team and see what they think on the matter, but I’m sure it’s a great idea. The computers though, I’ll definitely have to talk to them about since we are still in the midst of raising funds as we work, as we did before kick-off. But your ideas will be talked about at our next meeting, and I’ll get back to you by Wednesday evening as well. Thank you!!
I’m just curious, but have you made the arrangements to do something with all the batteries you are planning to collect? Out here in NY, we can only recycle specific types of batteries, the rest have we have to pay a rather significant fee for disposal. I would love to hear of the some the logistics in getting such an recycling event set up!
As far as the robot batteries go, according to the FIRST Safety Manual:
The Interstate Batteries Company http://www.interstatebatteries.com has volunteered to accept and properly dispose of any FIRST team’s batteries, and you can find a location near you from the above web site.
Most retailers of automotive batteries will accept and properly dispose of them at no cost.
Re: Cynnette
We have come up with ideas for the disposal of the batteries free of charge, considering it’s not just FIRST batteries we’re recycling, it’s pretty much any battery. I’ll be sure to check out your link. Thanks!!
Re:Cheerleader1073
You could most certainly send us any old batteries you have, but I’m still uncertain about the drop-box idea. We haven’t assembled one for ourselves quite yet, since it’s so early in build season still. But you could take credit for your regional if you wanted, that was our initial goal in posting this was to inspire other teams to take charge of disposal as well. Then again, if you do talk to your team and decide you’d like to create a drop-box and have it at your regional, you wouldn’t have to send us any batteries and could use that postage money to go towards the drop-box assembly fund. Thank you!!
Re: ZonChau
First, I apologize for misspelling your name previously. Second, the computer idea would be good; your team could initialize it and get it started and other teams may just follow suit. Saving computers would be a good idea and if that idea could just be nurtured a bit it could potentially grow into something great. Thanks!!
@syoung1110: Logistically, sounds like it would just be easier for us to do our own - thanks for inspiring us! You can put down that you got 1073 to do something similar at their regionals for your awards
Re: Cheerleader1073
Thank you so much for helping us get the idea out there! If you come up with any other ideas I’m sure my team would be glad to follow suit!
syoung1110:D
I could not find one organization that would not charge to accept alkaline batteries. It wouldn’t be good for you to collect them and then have to throw them in the trash, since that would be misrepresenting your efforts.
Good luck with your collection! I think that anything positive that is done to reduce our own personal impact on the earth is a great thing!
Hi Cynette - I wrote that article but followed up later with another that indicates [we should recycle alkaline batteries](http://willtaft.com/170/yes-we-do-need-to-recycle-alkaline-batteries" target="_blank). I still get comments and emails from both points of view. It is an issue that has yet to be definitively settled.
If alkaline batteries are to be recycled, you are correct that I have yet to find a company that will take them free of charge. If anyone here does find one, please post the company both here and on my post so we can publicize them as widely as possible.
Will you ask to see if they are able to recycle them, or if they just collect them as a courtesy service? I know that where I work, we collect all of the batteries just to make it less confusing for everyone. Then we sort out the ones we can recycle and sadly toss all of the others in the trash.
Hey Team 1288! I’m still really excited about your recycling program! I hope it is a great success and you will be able to develop a simple model for other teams in other regions to adopt!
Thanks Adam. Are you able to post the name and email of your local recycle place that takes the alkaline? Or PM me with it? I would like to find out exactly how they are being handled and recycled. Also how they do it without charging. There are companies, for example Toxco’s program the Big Green Box, that do recycle them for a fee.
There are claims that companies that take all kinds of batteries, actually just sort and ship the alkaline ones somewhere for storage and do not recycle them. I have been told that some companies that say will recycle alkaline batteries, and that do collect them along with other types, sort out the alkaline and toss them. I have never been able to definitively determine that there exists a company that will take the alkaline for free and them really recycles them. It has been a while since I have looked into this so maybe things have changed. I would love to know for sure.
on edit: heh Cynette, not only are we cross posting, but thinking alike!
Thanks!!