Ten years after it began, DeWalt’s promise to offer easy recycling services for dead rechargeable tool batteries remains firm.
The Call2Recycle program has been running since 1994 as the nation’s first and largest consumer battery stewardship and recycling program. In 2008, Call2Recycle first announced “National Power Tool Battery Recycling Month” in collaboration with DeWalt. In that first year, they reported collecting more than 6.3 million pounds of batteries through the Call2Recycle program.
Call2Recycle has also partnered with the PRBA, The Rechargeable Battery Association. As battery-powered devices proliferate, recycling the materials becomes more urgent.
Dewalt takes its sustainability seriously, collecting its own batteries as well as batteries for other tools. Nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cad), nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH), and lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries from any manufacturer are eligible for recycling through DeWalt.
DeWalt continues to encourage the recycling of its batteries, instructing consumers to dispose of old batteries at DeWalt Service Centers on their website. The benefit to the company includes access to battery-making materials that can be reused at a lower cost than raw materials. Consumers and the planet benefit from lower long-term costs of batteries and reduced toxic waste in landfills.
Stanley Black and Decker, which has worked with Call2Recycle from its inception and owner of the DeWalt brand as well as others, offers battery recycling services to its customers. Black and Decker provides links to the Earth911 Recycling Search service to help locate recycling programs
The PRBA also includes companies that produce other kinds of rechargeable batteries, such as car companies, computer manufacturers, and battery companies.
For more information on the Call2Recycle program and a little information on how rechargeable batteries are recycled, check out this article from Sciencing.
Feature image courtesy of Mark Hunter
Editor’s note: Originally published on April 17, 2009, this article was updated in January 2019