Weekend Errand: Recycling Batteries

RECYCLE - even your granny does it. Batteries disposed of in municipal landfills and trash incinerators can disperse heavy metals and other toxic substances into the air and water. California takes battery waste prevention and recycling seriously. Our state has designated all batteries as hazardous waste and requires that they be recycled or taken to a household hazardous waste collection facility.
Consider these two points before running out to purchase that economy pack of batteries:


1. Rechargeable batteries last longer than single-use batteries, which means fewer batteries for disposal. Alternatively, you can purchase long life (10 year!) 9 volt lithium batteries on batteryjunction.com for a fraction of the price that other sites offer the product.

2. All batteries have a finite life span, but there are steps you can take to prolong the life of your batteries.

To find a recycling center for single use batteries near you, check out  Earth911.

Accidents Happen

I have recently undertaken the grueling task of stripping all of the doors in the home in the name of reclaiming wood. This will take weeks and weeks of slow-going work but I've become obsessed with the idea of preserving the house's integrity and reusing as many of the home's original materials as possible. Kermit was right: "It's not easy being green". I started off with a door that had a large window in it. It was kind of cheating because it had less surface for me to cover. After two days of wearing a lead dust respirator, wielding my very heavy heat gun to remove a myriad of hideous hues and applying a citric acid based stripper afterwards, I finished my first door. I thought now that I had an acute case of carpal tunnel from toting that monster of a gun that I was ready to tackle the old bathroom door. The paint on one side of the door was strangely cracked on bottom half. I had no idea what could have caused that cracking, but I would soon find out. Even with my heavy duty respirator on, I smelled the very strong stench of urine. Apparently, all that cracking was the result of many, many years of man-splashing. Stripping stinks!