Ionizing smoke alarms are the only radioactive consumer article to make their way into the everyday life. Are you putting your old smoke alarms in the trash?
It’s time to change old behaviors.
Curie makes it easy and economical to do the right thing for homeowners, HHW Collection Facilities, commercial and governmental entities – any property owner.
Consider the three reasons why you should recycle your ionizing smoke alarms:
- The majority of smoke alarms contain a radioactive source/foil. These will be recovered and properly managed in a specially designed facility for radioactive materials – not a solid waste landfill designed for residential and non-hazardous refuse.
- All smoke alarms contain a printed circuit board that if not recycled by commercial generators becomes RCRA regulated waste by EPA. Curie will recycle the circuit boards. Homeowners have traditionally been exempted from EPA regulations, but many states have introduced Universal Waste (UW) or Electronic Waste (E-Waste) regulations in the past decade that affect homeowners. California in particular requires all smoke alarms to be recycled including those generated by homeowners.
- The hard plastic case and remaining metals will all be recycled and diverted from the solid waste stream.
Steady Replacement of Alarms Requires Diversion from Solid Waste Landfills.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends replacement of all smoke alarms, including alarms that use 10-year batteries and hard-wired alarms, when they are 10 years old or sooner if they do not respond properly when tested. Further the NFPA advises when moving into a new home, replace the alarms if you do not know how old the alarms are.
CuriePackSM is an easy, cost-effective mail back recycling solution.
Please download the CuriePackSM file here for more information.