As a general rule, politics are pretty ambiguous when it comes to the environment.....both parties claim to have the "interests of the planet" at heart, but when they start proposing clear cutting of national forests, drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico (spelled too darned close this time......they've already screwed up the Everglades, probably beyond repair, a major nursery area for most of the Gulf's fish species, plus all the water diverted for the sugar industry is playing a major part in our red tide epidemics, something one has to see or smell to truly appreciate) I do tend to bet a bit testy.

Politics is politics and BOTH sides are out for the major benefactors and appropriate industries, no matter how much they claim to support the common man, and complaining doesn't mean I'm not fully cognizent of how much better it is hee than most other locale in the world.....anyone who has been to a 3rd world country and doesn't realize how good we really have it is beyond hope.

Mike

Looks like the Great Battery Reef.

I think that recycling is always good. It helps keep our planet healthy, and saves the pescados! (that means fish in Spanish) Thanks batplus for your encouraging words!

My pleasure, battplus if you all have'nt figured it out stands for Batteries Plus, we are a small francise LLC that specializes in all kinds of batteries and the recycling programs for them.
[url]www.rbrc.com[/url] is the website for more recycling programs in your area. If we take care of batteries properly, we can save landfills and other choice disposal areas from toxins released. Every little clean up effort brings us closer to success, better corals for the wild, and leaves some for our hobby too!

Mike Hoekstra
Batteries Plus

Mike,

Your business's website looks great. It looks like it does make a difference.

glad to see that someone is doing somthing about it instead of just talking a good game

keep up the work mike!

That is so messed up people would do that.

Aside from being unsightly and the fact that it probably killled a lot of stuff already. What are the actual environmental impact of THIS particular case?

I'm guessing that battery acid is sulfuric acid? It probably didn't have that big an impact (I'm sure volcanoes belch it out at orders of magniture more volume).

Lead. What happens to the lead in the water? If the dumpers were smart (obviously they aren't!) they would have salvaged the lead and sold it. (Hey, people who hand load pistol cartridges as a hobby often scrounge for lead. If the dumpers had offered cheap lead, I think shooters would flock to do the work of removing it).

Plastic. A mess that will stay around forever but biologically inert.

I am, of course, in NO WAY saying that this kind of behaviour is acceptable by any stretch of the imagination. It's human garbage and we shouldn't just hide it away like it doesn't exist. All that stuff is recylable (I think). Could it be that when we bring our old batteries to the autostore or recycling centre...this is what happens to it?

Just wait until eco-friendly electric cars and hybrids become more popular. Will that mean even more battery dumping?

V

Wow I was having a good day tll I read this. What a downer man!! You know the real problem with the environement and the world, is exactly what is taking place here. People are too divided on what needs to be done, some are in disbelief that anything really needs to be done, and yet others are just ignorant and CHOOSE to remain that way.

I tell ya if ever there was a god, now would be a good time for him to step in! It just seems man cannot direct his own footsteps does it? It just gets worse.

Makes me wanna kill myself :(

Take. Your. Meds.

Please... ;)

If you kill yourself, please don't leave your body in the ocean!

A note on PHYSICAL sea junk...the ocean is full of ships and planes and other crap. The beauty of the ocean is that physical things, as we know will soon become habitats for good living things. (Chemical and biological refuse is a much different issue).

I'm not condoning ocean dumping, but I know that ships are often sunk to make reefs. I've done some wreck diving and I know that stuff takes a liking to physcal structures (I've seen the metal frame of the "bomber" from the filming of "Thunderball" and the cessna from "Jaws 3" and they are fully encrusted with coral and life all around it.

Maybe it's propaganda, but I remember seeing a display either in the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, or else Monterey Bay Aquarium where they showed how the presense of an oil rig actually encourages life to flourish in some really bleak areas (Heck we ALL know how life just finds a handhold on anything in our tanks! My pumps, returns, overflows, etc are coated with life)

Batteries is something very different and completely irresponsible (hey, ships sink, planes crash, oil rigs are built with environmental impact studies done first). I find it horrible that some company would do this. I think massive fines need to be imposed...but then again, that is hard to enforce.

I don't know if anyone remembers but years ago Canada imposed a moratorium (sp?) on cod fishing of the Maritime coast (ie; east coast). So Canadian fishermen lost their jobs. That didn't stop the Europeans from fishing there though. As a matter of fact the Canadian Coast Guard had to patrol the 200 miles "international waters border" to keep foreign fishermen out. But those fishermen would fish at exactly 200 miles and one foot...

Who knows who dumped those batteries. Maybe they were even dumped by a company that we all brought our used batteries to for recyling? How do we know the stuff we put in the blue boxes are even recycled?

Man, this IS a downer. The best thing that WE can do is to do what we can locally. Bring cloth shopping bags to the store, buy things in bulk to reduce packaging, recycle everything, etc.

Are we hypocrites though? I know my tank lights eat up quite a bit of electricity! I even use to pay more to use "Green Mountain Electric" because they claimed to dump renewable energy into the powergrid on my behalf...until the whole California energy crisis forced them out of the state.

We do it to ourselves. This thread is depressing because it just shows how powerless we are and how just a few bad eggs can really screw things up.

V

PS. don't kill yourself unless we can recycle your body. I have a can of fava beans and a nice chianti waiting ... ;)

DensityMan I like your signature! Had me cracking up!

Just as an FYI...you can take your old batteries, of any kind, to a Verizon Wireless store and drop them into a recyling bucket there.

Cheers...Michael :beer:

Is that why whales fart so much.

'Responsible Reefkeeping' threads should be randomly injected into every set of search results.

(I became so engrossed in this discussion that I'll have to hit my 'back' button to figure out what I was searching for...)

def. political

WOW that's sucks how batteries kill the sea... Where can I recycyle AA, AAA batteries?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by NanoCube-boy [/i]
[B]WOW that's sucks how batteries kill the sea... Where can I recycyle AA, AAA batteries? [/B][/QUOTE]

4 posts before you.......

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by jokermgp [/i]
[B]Just as an FYI...you can take your old batteries, of any kind, to a Verizon Wireless store and drop them into a recyling bucket there.

Cheers...Michael :beer: [/B][/QUOTE]

Or you can go to any local Batteries Plus to recycle.:D

wow i didnt know that! I am doing that from now on. They get pleanty of my money, they can recycle my batteries


[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by jokermgp [/i]
[B]Just as an FYI...you can take your old batteries, of any kind, to a Verizon Wireless store and drop them into a recyling bucket there.

Cheers...Michael :beer: [/B][/QUOTE]

Ypu have to pay?

i think its free

Yes - its a free service that Verizon Wireless offers. Pretty sweet, huh? A socially responsible corporation. I'm really proud to be a VZW employee!

Cheers...Michael :beer:

hmm I was thinking of changing phone companies and now I'll feel a little better knowing that the one robbing me is actually doing something I really believe in.