Evaluation of heavy metal leaching from spent household batteries disposed in municipal solid waste.

Batch leaching tests and simulated landfill lysimeter tests were performed to evaluate the contents of heavy metals leached from spent batteries in the municipal solid waste. The toxicity characteristic leaching procedure was utilized to perform the batch leaching tests of 36 spent batteries. Four lysimeters were prepared with battery contents ranging from 0% to 100% by weight for column tests, and the experiments were performed at ambient temperature. The age of all the batteries used in the study ranged from freshly disposed up to approximately 3 years old. The results from the batch tests showed that the type of battery influenced the heavy metal concentrations in the leached solutions. The lysimeter experiment results illustrated that at lower pH levels more metals are leached than at higher pH levels. The increasing amount of batteries disposed in landfills can contribute to the leaching of more metals, especially Mn and Zn, into the environment. These results indicate that the direct disposal of spent household batteries into a MSW landfill can increase the heavy metal contents in the landfill leachate.