Batteries Top Earth911.com Recycling Searches

Batteries were the most searched material for recycling and disposal options in 2008.

The results are in from a year of consumers and businesses searching Earth911.com for recycling and disposal options. At the top of our list for most requested items were batteries. The term “batteries” can encompass a range of products, including car batteries, cell phone batteries and single-use alkalines.

While ranking lower on the list, “Christmas trees” still ranked in the top 10, beating materials like “cardboard” and “glass” for the year – even though it only received the vast majority of its popularity during December and January.

Looking deeper into the list, the top six search terms last year were some form of household hazardous waste, demonstrating consumers’ concern for keeping hazardous products out of landfills.

Here are the top 10 search requests from 2008:

1. Batteries
2. Motor oil
3. Computers
4. Fluorescent bulbs
5. Paint
6. Televisions
7. Plastic
8. Aluminum cans
9. Christmas trees
10. Electronics

This list shows what products people looked to find disposal options for, not the most commonly recycled products of 2008. For example, aluminum cans are a staple of most curbside recycling programs and are the most commonly recycled beverage container in the U.S., yet they were the eighth most sought-after product to find recycling locations.

We’ll explore some more trends of recycling search demand later this week, but in the meantime you can read the full report.