A bill has been filed in the Texas Legislature, HB1874 that calls for expanded battery recycling options for Texas citizens. This bill is similar to the Producer Takeback recycling laws covering TVs and computers that were passed by the TX legislature in 2007 and 2011.  Because of the volume of batteries in general use, and toxicity of many types, it is time that the Producer Takeback approach is applied to the proliferation of household batteries, including regular alkaline batteries. No batteries should end up in landfills (including alkaline), and some states have already enacted legislation to that end.

Here is a link to an informative video explaining how and why batteries should be recycled (a tad long, but one can fast forward as desired):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMn-sDvgj4Q  

Please contact your state legislators and ask them to support HB1874 for improved household battery recycling options.

You can go to the following link to sign a petition to Vote Yes on HB 1874:
https://www.texasenvironment.org/petition/texas-lawmakers-vote-yes-hb-1874-battery-recycling/ 

Or you can send your own letter to your State Representative, using the sample letter below (letter courtesy of Texas Campaign for Environment action alert):  
For State Rep. address info, go to:  
http://www.house.state.tx.us/about-us/  

Support HB 1874 for Battery Recycling

As someone who wants to protect natural resources and prevent pollution, recycling is important to me - especially for hard-to-recycle items like household batteries. I'm writing to ask you to please support HB 1874 and help pass it into law this legislative session.

Over a third of our active, monitored landfills in Texas are leaking. We should do everything we can to keep our water clean by reducing and properly recycling toxic materials, and we should not be throwing metals away when those materials could be put back into the economy.

Environmental protection is important to me, and I urge you to remember this responsibility when deciding how to vote on important legislation that impacts our air, water, land, and health.      

Sincerely, Your Name

BTW, below are some additional interesting videos about battery recycling.

Curbside collection in a portion of Ontario, Canada:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1rzmWRPZ8

Efforts in California:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLLt-72XLdE 

For questions or feedback, contact Frank Blake at frankblake@juno.com