Nationwide, 34 states have enacted Producer TakeBack Recycling laws in which manufacturers provide recycling for products such as electronics, paint, carpet, mercury containing light bulbs & thermostats, pesticide containers, auto switches and mattresses. Thanks to years of public pressure and grassroots support, Texas has done this for computers and televisions so far.

Producer TakeBack recycling is a proven solution for handling hard-to-recycle materials. This takes the burden off of taxpayers and local governments by making manufacturers responsible for recycling. Doing this gives manufacturers a profit motive to reduce waste and re-design their products with fewer hazardous materials.

One perfect example is household batteries—rechargeable or single-use, they do not belong in landfills. Trash landfills are often located near waterways and many are leaking toxins underground. Safe handling of the potentially harmful materials contained in household batteries is important for protecting our air, water and land in Texas.

Despite this known problem, there are still no widespread recycling programs in Texas for single-use batteries, and the existing recycling system for rechargeables doesn’t work well either. National estimates show that 3 billion batteries are tossed into U.S. landfills each year. That means that roughly 250 million single-use and rechargeable batteries are ending up in Texas landfills every year!

Battery companies are already providing convenient recycling programs for most Canadians, Europeans, and Vermont residents, because of legislation that has passed there. Texans deserve the same service and opportunity to recycle!

All major battery manufacturers now publicly support recycling legislation in Texas and other states. In 2015 Texas lawmakers considered battery recycling legislation, but unfortunately the bill did not pass. The State of Vermont passed a battery takeback law, and single-use battery recycling increased there by 1400%, while rechargeable battery recycling nearly doubled! Similar legislation will be filed here in 2017, so we need you to tell your lawmakers to support battery recycling for Texas.

The idea is to replace cradle-to-grave thinking, which assumes that products will be landfilled at the end of their useful lives, with cradle-to-cradle design, which aims for product design in which everything is either fully recyclable or fully and safely biodegradable. The aim is to model our system after nature, where there is no waste. The goal is to create products that are healthy for all of us, for all time.