Information from Call2Recycle

Seattle residents are being asked to take part in a friendly recycling competition June 22-26 to help their neighborhood win the title of Greenest Seattle Neighborhood.

Call2Recycle, North America’s first and largest consumer battery stewardship and recycling program, is partnering with The Seattle Public Library to put battery collection boxes at six different branches across the city. The neighborhood whose box weighs the most will be crowned the greenest in Seattle. Boxes will be weighed at Call2Recycle’s collection event June 28 at Westlake Park with the help of local celebrity John Curley.

“Building on the success of last year’s Battery Recycling Day, which was proclaimed by Mayor Mike McGinn, we are again celebrating on June 28,” says Jennifer Childress, director of marketing and communications for Call2Recycle. “In honor of this, we want to know which Seattle neighborhood can gather the most batteries. After you drop off batteries, make sure to tweet us at @Call2Recycle so we can say thank you.”

Battery collection boxes will be at Ballard, Beacon Hill, Capitol Hill, West Seattle, Lake City, and University libraries June 22-June 26, accessible during regular business hours.

“The Seattle Public Library is happy to be involved,” says Chance Hunt, The Seattle Public Library’s assistant director of community partnerships and government relations. “We’re excited to see how many batteries Seattleites can donate for recycling, and to find out which neighborhood truly is the greenest.”

Drop off all types of household batteries (weighing up to 11 pounds each), including both single-use batteries and rechargeable batteries commonly found in laptops and digital cameras. Obsolete cellphones can also be dropped off at the libraries for recycling. The West Seattle drop off is the SPL branch at 2306 42nd Ave SW.

More details about the June 28 Battery Recycle Day event, which will feature live music, celebrity John Curley, and prize drawings, can be found at www.call2recycle.org/takecharge. Questions about batteries or the competition? Tweet @Call2Recycle using hashtag #TakeCharge.

Why should batteries be recycled?

By collecting and recycling batteries, Call2Recycle reduces landfill waste and removes potentially harmful heavy metals from the waste stream, preventing possible contamination of groundwater, soil and other natural resources. The collected batteries and cellphones are sorted, processed and reclaimed. Materials recovered are used to create new batteries, concrete additives and a variety of stainless steel products.

About Call2Recycle®

Founded in 1994, Call2Recycle—North America's first and largest battery stewardship program—is a non-profit organization that collects and recycles batteries at no cost for municipalities, businesses and consumers. Since 1996, Call2Recycle has diverted over 75 million pounds of rechargeable batteries and cellphones from the solid waste stream and established 30,000 collection sites throughout the U.S. and Canada. It is the first program of its kind to receive the Responsible Recycling Practices Standard (R2) certification. Learn more at call2recycle.org or 877-723-1297. Follow at facebook.com/call2recycle or twitter.com/call2recycle.