Do You Recycle Your Batteries?

Power or energy is very important to run any machine, appliance, or gadgets. You should know that in modern times battery recyling is an important part of our energy processes. This power is provided by (mainly), either chemical or electrical energy. And battery is a sort of device that supplies this power.
Battery is actually an electrochemical tool, with voltaic cells, which provides power by converting chemical energy into electrical energy.

A battery is generally cylindrical in shape with two terminals, one positive electrode and one negative electrode that conduct electricity along with a substance called electrolyte, that works on the electrodes, chemically and help convert into electrical energy. There is a copper wire that connects the two electrodes. Materials that are used in batteries are carbon, alkaline, chlorine, lithium ion, lead, nickel, sodium, silicon, copper, etc.

Batteries are classified into two- Dry cells and wet cells. The wet cell batteries are also termed storage battery as they can be recharged as many times as possible. Batteries are also divided as rechargeable and non-rechargeable or disposable batteries. The second type is again termed as primary cells, used till the chemical that produce the electrical current supply is fully consumed, at which point the battery is not needed anymore. These types of batteries are used very commonly in small and portable piece of equipments that drain low current.

The other type is rechargeable or in other words secondary cells that can be "refueled" even after being completely consumed. For recharging, these batteries need some external help from devices as chargers or re-chargers.

In the present world due to the development of science and technology almost everything (papers, plastics, batteries, aluminum, etc.) can be recycled without wasting it by just throwing it after use. Thus we see that recycling is a procedure by which waste products are recovered for reusing, which is also known as waste management.

Battery recycling falls under electronic waste or e-waste. Here any discarded, broken or unwanted electrical or electronic equipments, containing toxic materials are recycled for further use. Batteries like, nickel-cadmium, lead, lithium batteries are made to reuse as the chemicals present in them can cause harm to the environment if allowed to stay long in open air after being discarded by the users. Moreover batteries are regarded as the most expensive energy source and their production requires much valuable recourse, so they are recycled so as to restore those valuable materials from those old and used batteries through battery recyling.

Cadmium is a heavy metal and can cause pollution if burned or cremated. To avoid lead pollution lead-aced batteries are processed. This program is considered to be highly successful. Lithium-ion can be very dangerous if exposed to high temperature or sunlight, it can ignite or explode. Therefore battery recycling is a must if we want to protect our environment.

Source: Free Articles
Autor: echarter