Here's how to get rid of your old batteries
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

As if it weren't bad enough to discover a flashlight wasn't working on a dark and stormy night, nobody knew what to do with the old batteries.

Don't even think about throwing them in the trash can.

"It's illegal, and state regulations prohibit throwing batteries in landfills," explained Stan Hakes, senior analyst public works department of Thousand Oaks. "Chemicals and heavy metals in batteries can contaminate soil and water."

Finally, there's a solution. At the beginning of August the city started a battery collection program allowing Thousand Oaks residents to drop off old batteries at the libraries, the senior center or city hall.

This new way of collecting old batteries should make it easier for residents, some of whom may even have buckets of old batteries stored up because they didn't know what to do with them.

In the past, they had to make an appointment with the city and then drive to the hazardous waste drop-off area.

This usually happened on the first Saturday of each month and will continue to take place for all hazardous waste except for batteries.

So don't show up at the senior center or library with old fluorescent lights, cans of paint, computer monitors or other toxic substances, Hakes warned. Just old batteries. That's all they're collecting.