If you live in North Iowa, you know that our connection to the land is different here. From the fishermen waiting for the catch of the day on the frozen expanse of Clear Lake to the farmers tending the rich soil of Cerro Gordo County, we understand that our environment isn’t just scenery—it’s our livelihood and our legacy.
We pride ourselves on being good stewards. We participate in community clean-ups, we respect hunting limits, and we are diligent about sorting our cardboard and plastics for the recycling bin. But inside nearly every home in Mason City, Forest City, and beyond, there is a small, heavy, and toxic item that is slipping through the cracks of our environmental conscience.
It’s the common single-use battery.
Every year, thousands of pounds of alkaline batteries are thrown into household trash cans across our region. They are “out of sight, out of mind.” But what happens after the garbage truck pulls away is a story that every North Iowan needs to hear—and it’s a problem that has a surprisingly simple solution.
The Journey to the Landfill: What Really Happens?
When you toss a dead AA battery into your kitchen bin, it eventually makes its way to the Landfill of North Iowa. While our local waste management professionals do an incredible job managing the waste stream, they are fighting an uphill battle against chemistry.
Single-use batteries are essentially metal canisters filled with a chemical cocktail—zinc, manganese, and potassium hydroxide. In the controlled environment of your TV remote, they are safe. But inside a landfill, the casing is crushed, punctured, and subjected to moisture and pressure.
Over time, these casings corrode. The chemicals inside can leach out. While modern landfills are lined to prevent seepage, the risk of these heavy metals and corrosive acids eventually finding their way into our soil and groundwater is a gamble we shouldn’t be willing to take. Water quality is paramount in North Iowa; it sustains our agriculture and our tourism.
Furthermore, there is a more immediate danger: Fire.
“Dead” batteries are rarely 100% empty. They often retain a residual charge. When a garbage truck compacts a load of trash, or when a bulldozer moves waste at the landfill, a lithium or alkaline battery can be crushed against other metals, creating a spark. Battery-related fires are becoming one of the most frequent and dangerous hazards for waste management workers across the Midwest.
The Recycling Dilemma
To be a responsible citizen, the current advice is to separate your batteries and take them to a designated drop-off point, such as the Regional Collection Center for Household Hazardous Waste.
This is, undeniably, the right thing to do with the old batteries you currently have. However, we must be realistic about human nature. Life is busy. Between dropping the kids off at school, getting to work, and managing a household, that jar of dead batteries in the garage often sits there for years—or, in a moment of frustration, gets dumped in the regular trash.
Recycling is a reactive solution. It manages the waste after it has been created. But if we want to truly keep North Iowa beautiful, we need to look at a proactive solution. We need to stop generating the waste in the first place.
The “Reduce” Revolution: Switching to Rechargeables
The old environmental mantra is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” We focus heavily on the third “R,” but the first one—Reduce—is where the real impact happens.
The most effective way to protect the Landfill of North Iowa from battery waste is to switch your household from disposable alkaline batteries to rechargeable batteries.
For many of us, “rechargeable batteries” brings up bad memories of the 1990s—batteries that took 24 hours to charge, only to die after 30 minutes of use. But battery technology has undergone a revolution in the last decade, driven by the same tech that powers electric cars.
Modern rechargeable solutions, particularly those using Lithium-ion or advanced NiMH (Nickel-Metal Hydride) chemistry, are unrecognizable from their predecessors.
Innovators in the consumer energy space, such as EBL, have developed cells that are designed to be the permanent engines of your household devices. The math on waste reduction is staggering:
- The 1:1200 Ratio: A single high-quality rechargeable battery from a brand like EBL can be recharged up to 1,200 times. This means one single battery purchased today can prevent 1,200 disposable metal casings from ever entering our local waste stream.
- Cold Weather Resilience: This is a specific benefit for us in the Midwest. Alkaline batteries rely on a water-based chemical reaction that slows down significantly in freezing temperatures. If you’ve ever had a flashlight dim instantly during a North Iowa snowstorm, you’ve seen this. Modern rechargeable Lithium batteries are far more resistant to the cold, making them a safer choice for winter emergency kits.
Practical Steps for a Greener Community
Making the switch doesn’t have to happen overnight. It can be a gradual process that saves you money while saving our land.
Start with the “high-drain” offenders in your house. Digital cameras, gaming controllers (Xbox/PlayStation), smart door locks, and children’s motorized toys are the devices that eat alkaline batteries for breakfast. These are the devices filling up your trash can.
By replacing just these key devices with a set of rechargeable batteries and a smart charger, the average North Iowa family could reduce their hazardous household waste by pounds every year.
A Stewardship Mindset
We often feel helpless when reading about global environmental issues. The problems seem too big, and our actions seem too small.
But the issue of battery waste is local, tangible, and solvable. It is happening right here in our county, and the fix is available at any hardware store or online retailer.
Transitioning away from the “use it and toss it” economy of single-use batteries is a modern form of stewardship. It’s a way of saying that we care enough about the Winnebago River, the clear waters of our lakes, and the safety of our sanitation workers to make a small change in our daily habits.
So, the next time your remote control stops working, don’t just reach for another disposable stick of chemicals. Consider investing in a rechargeable solution. It’s a smarter way to power your home, and it ensures that the only thing we leave behind for the next generation of North Iowans is a clean, thriving landscape.