thing you could be doing with them.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of DNews! I’m Amy and you’re watching

thanks to the miracle of electricity, electricity we’ve grown accustomed to carrying around

with us thanks to batteries.

Electricity is what you get when electrons flow through a conductive path like a wire

to create a circuit, and batteries play a key role in that circuit.

A typical household battery like a AA battery has three basic parts: the negatively charged

anode, the positively charged cathode, and the electrolyte typically containing sulfuric

acid and water that sits in between them. The cathode and anode are the bits that touch

your device via the spring and little nobbly bit in the battery well of, say, a flashlight.

They’re the pieces that close the electrical circuit.

The chemical reaction inside a battery causes a build up of electrons at the anode which

causes a difference in electrical charge between the anode and the cathode. The electrons want

to rearrange themselves and balance out this charge, and so they repel each other to get

to where there are fewer electrons. In a battery, that’s the cathode.

But the electrolyte in the battery stops the electrons from just hopping over to the cathode,

so the only way the electrons can get to where they want to go is to follow a circuit, say

though a wire that illuminates the bulb in a flashlight, to get to where they want to

go.

So why do batteries die? The electrochemical processes within a battery actually change

the anode and cathode to the point where they stop supplying electrons. When there are no

more electrons, there’s no more power in the battery.

Rechargeable batteries work by changing the direction of the flow of electrons; the electrochemical

processes happen in reverse, restoring the anode and cathode to their original states

and the battery to full power.

And here’s the big question: why exactly can’t you throw a non-rechargeable battery

away once it’s dead? Batteries are made from chemicals found in minerals of heavy

metals, minerals that can be poisonous even in a very small amount. You don't’ really

want them sitting around in your house, and you also don't want to throw them away into

a landfill where they can pose environmental risks.

It’s best to dispose of batteries properly because if it’s done right batteries can

be almost or entirely recycled. Recycling a battery is a multistage process. First,

the battery is broken apart by a hammer mill such that the lead and heavier pieces fall

to the bottom and the lighter, plastic pieces float. The plastic pieces are washed, dried,

and sent to a plastic recycler. The lead parts are cleaned and heated in a smelting furnaces

until it is molten. That molten lead is then poured into ingot molds and left to cool so

the impurities float to the top. Once the impurities are scraped away, ingots are left

to cool completely before being remelted and used to produce new batteries. Battery acid

is either neutralized and turned into water or processed and converted to sodium sulfate

which can then be used in laundry detergent, glass, and textile manufacturing.

What to do and where to go varies depending on where you live and usually means asking

your local government what to do.

So how many of you hold on to your old batteries until you can dispose of them properly?

Let us know in the comments below or you can catch me on Twitter as @astVintageSpace. And

don’t forget to subscribe for more DNews every day of the week.