Ojai Valley Green Coalition

Last summer Marcia Doty attended a Theosophical meeting where the audience was asked to be of service to the community. One way offered was to bring a battery in to be recycled. Seeing how many batteries were collected Doty was inspired to ask, why not make it easy for people all around Ojai to recycle their batteries?

She took the idea to the Waste Management Committee of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition.
“We liked the idea immediately,” said Deborah Pendrey, the Committee’s co-chair who promised their support.

Doty came up with a simple but effective plan. She talked to merchants at seven locations around town, including Radio Shack and Dexter's Photo. She gave each a white plastic bucket and asked them to serve as drop-off points for customers wishing to recycle batteries.

Later Doty, with the help of Anca Colbert of the Public Relations and Communications Committee, made up a bookmark-sized "Infomark", made from recycled paper. The free “Infomark”, which lists the seven recycling locations, was handed out on Ojai Day and is available Sundays at her Farmer's Market battery recycling booth. and at the retail locations.
"I know it's working because I'm picking up full buckets," said Doty who picks up the batteries to be recycled weekly. According to Doty in five weeks she has gathered 200 pounds of batteries.

"It's really taken off,” said Doty

And in the “Infomark’s” case, the medium is the message, "Everybody really loves it," she said. "Newport Beach has called me, and the Girl Scouts of Riverside."

The “Infomark” idea has become so popular that Doty said she has heard from others around Southern California who want to try the idea themselves.

“We wanted a simple way to put the information in people’s hands both at Ojai’s Farmer’s Market at other environmental events,” said Colbert.

The Infomark is small, attractive, useable as a Bookmark, or as a reminder on a kitchen cupboard or fridge, and can be passed out easily.

Doty is working on expanding their recycling efforts with plans for recycling ewaste and is working with Colbert to establish a local pickup of paint and varnish. Next she’d like to work on the issue of recycling fluorescent bulbs. The bulbs contain a toxic waste, methyl mercury, bringing up safe disposal issues and the long glass tubes aren't as easily gathered as batteries.

In case you’re asking if it’s worth the bother to recycle those batteries consider the following. According to the EPA website over 73 million batteries are sold each year in this country. Batteries are comprised of heavy metals that can include nickel cadmium, alkaline, mercury, nickel metal hydride and lead acid. If sent to a landfill they leak into land, water and air. The EPA website says recycling batteries can also save resources by recovering plastic and metals that can be used to make new batteries.

To avoid battery waste Earth911, a non-profit recycling organization recommends these simple tips:

Check to see if you already have the batteries on hand before buying more. When suited to the task, buy hand operated items that function without batteries. Look for the batteries that have less mercury and heavy metals Consider rechargeable batteries for some needs, but remember that they also contain heavy metals such as nickel-cadmium.

Doty’s Infomark locations are Radio Shack, Ojai Creates!, Ojai Valley Surplus, Dexter's Camera in Ojai and Ventura, the Krotona Bookshop, and the Farmer and the Cook. Call Marcia Doty at 640-9441 for more information, or visit her booth at the Farmer's Market on Sundays.

For more information on battery recycling go to www.epa.gov/msw/battery.htm, or earth911.org/recycling/battery-recycling.