After watching a news story about battery recycling by a local fourth grader, I was inspired to start a program at my school. I originally started with my social skills teacher, then I decided to give a container to my algebra teacher. Next I gave one to my physics teacher, and put one in my school library. Often, math and science teachers have upwards of 30 calculators, each using 4 AAA batteries. When the batteries go dead, they have been discarding all 4 batteries. Most of the batteries I have gotten so far have been completely dead AAA batteries, but I have gotten some rechargeable AA batteries that were perfectly good, 1 perfectly good AA battery and more. I was able to return 4 brand new batteries to my algebra teacher so they could be used. I have been using plastic koolaid mix containers, with a hole large enough for a AA battery drilled in the lid. I printed a label with a label maker so everyone will know what the container is for. I check the containers every time I have those classes to see if there's any to collect, and then I take them home to test. If they are completely dead, I collect them until I have a a large batch to take to the library. If there is some life left in them, I will use them up first. The ones I tested that seemed brand new, I returned to the teacher.
Here is an affiliate link to a newer version of the label maker I used: https://amzn.to/2DbT6E7
and the green label tape https://amzn.to/2qhQwUs
The label maker uses 6 AA batteries or an AC adapter. It uses a lot of power- 9 watts- because it is a thermal printer. I would use an AC adapter because it is hard to find 6 old batteries that are good enough for this.
