Mercury-containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act
5302591
213544489
2008-05-19T20:25:00Z
Williamhortner
7131914
The '''Mercury-containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act''' (Public law [[104th United States Congress|104-142]]) was enacted by President [[Bill Clinton]] in 1996. The purpose of the law was to phase out the use of mercury in batteries and to provide for the efficient and cost-effective collection and recycling or proper disposal of used nickel cadmium batteries, small sealed lead-acid batteries, and certain other batteries.
==Effect==
It reduced the incidence of heavy metals in municipal waste and in streams and ground water that resulted from the disposal of:
# [[mercury (element)|mercury]] in single-use ([[primary cell]]) [[Battery (electricity)|batteries]]
# toxic [[metal]] content such as [[lead]] from [[lead-acid batteries]] and the [[cadmium]] in [[rechargeable batteries]], namely [[Ni-Cad]]s
The sale of the first of these was banned (with the exception of the allowance of up to 25mg of mercury per [[button cell]]) and the second family of products was given specific labeling and disposal requirements.
As a result, most retailers who sell rechargeable and other special batteries will take the old ones back for free recycling and safe disposal. The not-for-profit [[Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation]] (RBRC) [http://www.rbrc.org/], used by most retailers, reclaims the metals within the old batteries to make new products such as batteries (mercury, cadmium, lead) and [[stainless steel]] ([[nickel]]).
==See also==
* [[Got Mercury?]], a United States public awareness campaign about levels of the element mercury in seafood
* [[Mercury poisoning]], a disease caused by exposure to the element mercury or its toxic compounds
* [[Mercury Policy Project]], an organization that works to promote policies to control the distribution of the element mercury
* [[Mercury vacuum]], a vacuum cleaner specifically designed to collect spills and vapors of the element mercury
* [[Minamata disease]], industrial mercury pollution
* [[Niigata Minamata disease]], industrial mercury pollution
==References==
* [http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/state/policy/pl104.pdf Statute text at EPA web site (PDF)]
[[Category:United States federal environmental legislation]]
[[Category:1996 in law]]
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