Todd County has little or no infrastructure for recycling.  The problem is that in a rural area the cost of recycling is typically greater than the value recovered from recycled items.  A few years ago, this agent became interested in the opportunity to recycle cell phones and rechargeable batteries from electronic devices.  According the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are several benefits to recycling batteries.  They include:  (1) a reduction in the waste sent to landfills; (2) conservation of natural resources such as metals and minerals; (3) preventing pollution by reducing the need to collect new raw materials; (4) saving energy spent on refining new raw materials; (5) reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change; and (6) helping to sustain the environment for future generations.  

More specifically, recycling rechargeable batteries can contribute directly to preventing water and air pollution.  Rechargeable batteries thrown in the trash end up in a landfill where they can breakdown and leak toxic chemicals.  If the landfill liner fails, these chemicals can be leached into the groundwater below, contaminating drinking water from wells.  Lithium ion rechargeable batteries such as those in cell phones and other devices can start fires when they fail.  The result could be a landfill fire which may smolder for years, or even decades, polluting the air.  

Recycling cell phones is also beneficial because they contain small amounts of rare earth elements, which are in limited supply in the upper levels of the earth’s crust.  These elements are very expensive and most have to be imported, with China being the primary supplier to the United States.  I have kept a recycling box in my office for the past couple of years and it has gradually filled to the point where I needed to dispose of the contents.  I carried the batteries and cell phones to a recycling facility in Hopkinsville.  Altogether. approximately 50 pounds of batteries and cell phones were recycled.  To my knowledge, they were the first batteries and cell phones to be recycled through a public effort here in Todd County.