Help Recycle 1 Million Pounds of Batteries By October
On July 21st of this year, Call2Recycle, the only free rechargeable battery and cell phone collection program in the US and Canada, launched MyCall2Recycle, an awareness campaign designed to educate consumers and businesses on the importance and ease of battery recycling. The goal is to collect one million pounds of rechargeable batteries between now and October 1 of this year.
How can you help? In addition to searching your home and office for batteries to send in, if your hotel or business is located in the US or Canada, you can sign up to collect 
rechargeable batteries and cell phones for recycling as part of Call2Recycle’s collection program, which accepts all cell phones and rechargeable batteries weighing less than 11 lbs/5 kg each. Single-use alkaline batteries are not accepted at this time.
Once your hotel, business, or office is signed up, Call2Recycle will send you a free collection kit, which includes: collection boxes with bags, pre-paid shipping labels (bulk shipping is also available), guidelines sheet with safety instructions, and marketing materials to inform others that your business recycles batteries and cell phones.
It’s also something you can add to your website and your confirmation email. Remind guests that you receive batteries for recycling, and they can bring them on their vacation to drop off at your hotel.
By joining this initiative, you will form part of almost 30,000 collection sites in the U.S. and Canada where people can drop off used batteries and cell phones. Call2Recycle has an easy zip code/postcal code locator as well as a consumer helpline, 877.2.RECYCLE (877.273.2925), for people to determine the nearest dropoff point to their home, which could be your business.
About Call2Recycle
Call2Recycle is the only free rechargeable battery and cell phone collection program in the US and Canada. Since 1994, Call2Recycle has diverted more than 55 million pounds of rechargeable batteries from local landfills and established a network of 30,000 recycling drop-off locations. Advancing green business practices and environmental sustainability, Call2Recycle is the most active voice promoting eco-safe reclamation and recycling of rechargeable batteries and cell phones. Call2Recycle is operated by the non-profit Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC).
Learn more at call2recycle.org or 877.2.RECYCLE. You can also follow them on Twitter or through their Facebook fan page.
That’s a terrific idea! I love the idea of keeping those batteries out of landfills, and have tweeted this to spread the word! Thanks for sharing.
Peace.
Michelle
Thanks for the tweet, Michelle! I live in Argentina and have been unable to find places to recycle non-rechargeable batteries, so I try to at least spread the word to help people recycle in other countries.
Great post and awesome idea! Thanks for spreading the word. We need more people aware of these programs that are available and easy to participate in.
Stopping by from SITS! Hi!
Great idea. I have some candidates for this program, and I’ve been wondering what to do with them. Thanks! I’m over from the challenge.
Thanks TRR and Helen! I think a lot of people are in the position where they know batteries shouldn’t be thrown away, yet they don’t know what they should do with them, so it’s important to get the word out on programs like this. Thanks for stopping by!
This is a really great idea. I send my old mobile phones into envirophone and they get rid of the batteries for us in an eco friendly way. I’ve seen these boxes and they work wonderfully
Hi there Gemma! Thanks for the heads up on Envirophone. I will look into them, too. The more recycling resources there are, the easier it is!
Thanks for the tip – I’m never quite sure what to do with the batteries and usually stock up until I have time to drive to our waste center.
Sometimes it’s not so easy to recycle. You’ve got to do research for certain items. I’m going to look into more programs like this for future posts.