New Battery Collection Program
Johanna Luttrell, Ridgewood’s recycling program aide,recently made the announcement of changes to the village’s battery collection program.
"The village’s recycling center will not accept non-rechargeable alkaline batteries any more", she said."residents could safely dispose of these common household batteries in the regular trash.
"They’re called common cell," Luttrell said. "So they’re similar to your AA, AAA, C, D, 9-volt and even lantern batteries." The village will continue to take button cell (watch), rechargeable and car batteries".
Mercury is one of the main contaminants used in battery production, but due to a law passed in the 1990s outlawing the use of additional mercury in producing alkaline batteries, the amount of mercury in today’s disposable batteries is below the "hazardous waste threshold."
Alkaline batteries will not be accepted by Bergen County any more,either. Therefore, passing the cost of disposing of them to municipalities.
"We would then be looking at a situation where we would have to pay to get rid of them," Luttrell said. "after that also there’s this situation with the Department of Transportation (DOT), and their requirements now that batteries be packaged so that they cannot spark during transport. So with the volume of alkaline batteries in the marketplace it would just be very difficult to ensure they’re all packaged properly, and getting rid of them would be an issue itself."
According to DOT standards,the batteries must be individually packaged in plastic baggies or have non-conductive tape placed over the terminal ends ,in order to prevent sparking during transportation.
The village has recycled 5.88 tons of common household batteries since March 2007, including 1.46 tons of car batteries in 2009.
batteries supplying for new all-electric Ford van
Johnson Controls-Saft, a joint venture mainly focused on the hybrid and electric vehicle market, on Tuesday said it has been named the lithium ion battery supplier for a new, all-electric van that Ford Motor Co. plans to begin producing in late 2010.
With those systems being developed by Azure Dynamics Corp. of Oak Park, Mich.,which specializes in development and production of electric components and hybrid electric powertrain systems for commercial vehicles,the batteries will be used as part of the powertrain systems for the vehicles.
However,Terms were not reveiled.
Known as the Ford Transit Connect Battery Electric Vehicle, BEV,the all-electric van will be part of Ford's Transit Connect line of vehicles.
"The battery components will be assembled at a facility in Holland, Mich."the companies said in a statement,"the vehicle has a targeted range of 80 miles on all-electric power and is the first of four electric vehicles Ford plans to build in its global commercial vehicle program".
"The Transit Connect BEV would eliminate gas costs and enable fleet owners to more accurately forecast the cost of doing business," Johnson Controls-Saft said.