COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Every year Americans dump millions of batteries into their local landfills, and they can become a toxic mess.

A local business, Toxco, of Lancaster, is one of only two companies in the country that recycles household batteries, NBC 4’s Marshal McPeek reported.

They heat the batteries to 1,000 degrees Celsius, until the Cadmium vaporizes, and then they collect the gas in a condenser.

“The process itself is a fairly simple chemistry process,” Gretchen Viken, the plant manager at Toxco, explained. “When it hits that cold air, it will condense into a solid form and we capture it at that point. We will heat it up again and pour it out as a molten metal.”

The Cadmium can be sold as scrap metal or used in new batteries, McPeek reported.

According to Toxco, about .5 percent of trash in the landfills is household batteries, but they disproportionately contaminate the soil.

Toxco uses its “Big Green Box” program to collect batteries, and the company is looking for more partners to be drop-off sites.

“The more that can be captured and contained, the safer our environment is,” Viken told NBC 4.

Big Green Boxes can be order online if you’d like to start your own collection program. Otherwise, batteries can be taken to a Batteries Plus store or to one of SWACO’s household hazardous waste drop-offs.

Stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com for additional information.

Additional information on battery recycling:
Get a Big Green Box
Toxco Recyclers
Rechargable Battery Recycling Corporation
Battery Recycling and Disposable Guide for Households
USEPA Battery Information