Monday, June 14, 2004

Trying to throw my old batteries

I have been trying to get rid of my single use batteries. I know it is a fire hazard to keep them too long at home so I wrap them up and keep in in my bag. It is tempting to throw them in the dustbin but somehow, I just can't bring myself to do it. Before my bag gets set ablaze and I start lugging a ton of batteries to and fro the office, I have decided to find a better way of getting rid of my single use batteries, of which, I have a lot as the children's toys these days don't have windups- a remote control suv with an automatic bubble blower requires 8 AA batteries- someone gave it to my kid. The batteries expired after one evening. I HAVE switched to rechargeables, mind you.

Anyway, in a somewhat rare exercise of eco-friendly effort (not that I am not eco-friendly; but this is quite pro-active lah), I have decided to find out what is the best way to do this in modern Singapore. Let me know promptly if you have a protocol. Haven't found it yet but I found this little movie review on "Wrapped in Green" at the Ecomove-2003 awards website. Read on..

"Wrapped in Green"

Kemig Zhang, China/Japan 2002, 16 mins., documentary
(nominated by Earth Vision, Japan)

A little Chinese boy in the film "Wrapped in Green" says: environmental pollution is not seeing the stars in the sky. Ms Tian Gui Rong is selling batteries in a polluted Chinese provincial town. When she reads in the news paper that a single battery can pollute the amount of drinking water a person needs during his whole life, she decides to do it: she starts to collect the used batteries with her bicycle. Due to a lack of other possibilities, she stores them in her own house. A modern female Sisyphus, who does not only fight against the carelessness of the government, but also against her own family. Her husband threatens to divorce her. Wrapped in Green is as simply told as it is touching. The film shows a battle against ignorance and carelessness towards nature. Ms Ruang is a role model. At the end of the film, we see how little children are throwing old batteries wrapped in paper into Ms Rong's green bucket. A sign of hope."

4 comments:

chengpuay said...

I agree with you totally Adrian. Often I have been guilty of discarding away old batteries; after agonising for a few seconds as to how to better discard them; into the nearest convenient dustbin available. Call it sheer laziness, but sometimes we do not get easy access to proper disposal for items like glass, batteries, metals and paper. And those recycling bins displayed at prominent tourist attraction are not taken seriously by many.
Disposal/ recycling of various items do require a huge effort, especially in the Age of Plastics (some say hydrocarbons) where convenience rule supreme. Any ideas on how to go about tackling this problem?
I met a guy last year who set up his own paper recycling firm. He initiates newspaper recycling in schools and collects the papers for sale in Malaysia. In return, he does free nature appreciation walks and also gives talks on recycling/ conservation for the kids. I helped out in one of his walks to Sungei Buloh. Perhaps there is still hope after all. =)

Li Hong said...

Hi there! I found out today that Nokia Care Centres can accept the batteries for recycling. I asked NEA about it and they email me a reply that the Nokia centres can also accept household batteries like those AA and AAA type).

Wheelock Place Branch
501 OrchardRoad #03-03A Singapore238880
Tel: 6512 5778

Suntec City Branch
No. 3 Temasek Boulevard #02-56/58/60, Tower 1 Singapore 038983
Tel: 6332 9154

Century Square Branch
2 Tampines Centreal 5 #04-07/08 Singapore 529509
Tel: 6781 8914

Causeway Point Branch
1 WoodlandsSquare #03-24/25/26 Singapore 738099
Tel: 6512 5779

Parkway Parade
80 Marine Parade Road #B1-30/31/32 Singapore 449269
Tel: 6346 6589

Operatiing Hours
Monday to Saturday : 11.00am to 8.00pm
Sunday & Public Holidays : 11.00am to 5.00pm

Sivasothi said...

From: Lim Cheng Puay
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:55:34 +0800
Subject: Re: Battery recycling in Singapore

Hi Siva,
Checked with Nokia. They only accept cell phone batteries. ...

Cheers,
Cheng Puay

------ End of Forwarded Message

Bebe said...

hmmm i was just fiddling through the batteries stored in plastic namecard boxes in my parents' home and wondering how to dispose of them. Personally i avoid using any devices that needs single batteries to operate. was over the moon when i read nokia takes in, but it a false alarm. I will phone them to check anyway. I lived in Sweden for 6 yrs and there they are very organized abt recycling of all sorts, even batteries, electronics, expired medincines etc. thumbs up for the swedes