Pale Blue is a rechargeable batteries manufacturer focused on changing how we think about single-use items in our households. Photo: Roberto Sorin

PARK CITY, Utah — Pale Blue, a Park City-based company, is helping Recycle Utah with its recent battery collection and recycling sponsorship. Millions of single-use batteries are bought, used, and discarded each year, with many ending up in landfills. With Pale Blue’s support Recycle Utah is working to change that.

Batteries represent a significant environmental threat when not disposed of properly. They are made up of a variety of chemicals and can even cause fires when left in the sun for extended periods of time.

“Batteries contain toxic chemicals that can leach into our groundwater when they end up in our landfill. In Utah, our water resources are already very limited. That’s why it’s so important to recycle your batteries,” said Addison Marr, Communications & Development Director at Recycle Utah.
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Pale Blue is a rechargeable batteries manufacturer focused on changing how we think about single-use items in our households. Pale Blue centers its efforts on both the adoption of rechargeable batteries with its products and helping resolve the current problem of potentially hazardous batteries ending up in landfills with the sponsorship of recycling efforts.

“Pale Blue became a Bin Sponsor of our battery bins this summer, helping offset our high cost of recycling batteries and developing signs that educate our recyclers in sorting batteries. Additionally, Pale Blue provided an affiliate QR code for recyclers to purchase Pale Blue batteries, where a percentage of the money goes back to Recycle Utah,” said Marr.

CEO of Pale Blue, Tom Bishop, cited his visit to the Recycle Utah facility on Kearns as a moving experience that brought home the extreme number of discarded batteries.

“Doing a tour [of the facility] blew my mind even though I know all the numbers. They are collecting four 55-gallon drums of household batteries every three months, and simply seeing those drums at the center really brought it home for me,” said Bishop.

Even with the financial support and promotion of education relating to recycling batteries, the battery recycling efforts couldn’t have been completed at Recycle Utah without the help of volunteers who go above and beyond to do their part.

“Our trusty and valued volunteer, Ellen Sherk (sometimes referred to as the Battery Queen), spends every Thursday all day sorting batteries so that we can send them off to Battery Solutions to be recycled. Ellen has been volunteering with us for over seven years. At this point, she has a better understanding of battery recycling than some of our full-time staff. We so value her, and all the time, she volunteers to help us keep batteries out of our landfills and local groundwater systems,” said Marr.

Choosing to recycle batteries does not require much effort. Many businesses ranging from retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s to some landfills have battery drop-offs to recycle batteries. For bulk removal, there are initiatives like the Call 2 Haul program in Salt Lake City, for example, that will come to get several different kinds of items. Battery recycling for Summit County residents is as simple as putting your battery in the two yellow bins in front of the office.

More information about recycling batteries or other items is listed on Summit County’s website. You can also contact Recycle Utah at (435) 649-9698 or talk to a staff member at the center.