The importance of recycling batteries at home and work

Each year, over three billion batteries are thrown away across the United States. These exhausted batteries end up in landfills where they decay and leak, resulting in chemicals being absorbed into the soil and contaminating ground and surface water.

Over the last five years, the volume of battery waste in the US has increased due to the surge of consumer electronics usage, making a focus on battery recycling more critical.

To reduce battery waste and educate viewers, Sinclair Broadcast Group launched Sinclair Green, a company-wide sustainability initiative to identify and implement ways to reduce the organisation’s impact on the environment. Under this, all of Sinclair’s environmental efforts are branded to further formalise its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.

As the first step in this larger initiative, Sinclair formed a partnership with Batteries Plus, an omnichannel retailer of batteries, specialty light bulbs and phone repair services for consumers and commercial channels, which has more than 700 locations across the nation, to encourage mass recycling.

Through the program, Sinclair aims to limit the impact of its organisation on the environment by lessening its battery usage and providing employees methods for recycling batteries.

Additionally, its teams will test wider use of rechargeable batteries as an alternative to standard alkaline batteries.

Another key aspect of this initiative is educating communities on eco-friendly practices and steps to take to recycle batteries in order to decrease the amount that ends up in landfills.

Through Sinclair’s expansive reach in local communities, the campaign educates and provides resources to connect viewers with the opportunity to protect the Earth. The program was showcased across its stations in 86 markets across the US and 21 regional sports networks, to encourage battery recycling.

The promotional campaign ran throughout April to encourage viewers to recycle household batteries at a Batteries Plus location or through their local municipality free of charge, until the end of May. Viewers received information on battery recycling and their nearest Batteries Plus location that accepts household battery types, including disposable alkaline batteries, for recycling.

The batteries get passed along to its recycling partners, who in turn repurpose the salvageable material for secondary uses, keeping dangerous materials out of landfills.

In the end, the campaign successfully increased foot traffic to Batteries Plus stores and advanced education to consumers on battery recycling initiatives.

Chris Ripley is President & CEO at Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns, operates and/or provides services to 185 TV stations in 86 markets