Africa-Press – Tanzania. MOST of informal dealers of used lead acid batteries are polluting soil over lack of knowledge on best practices, it has been learnt.
Some of those dealers have revealed this during a meeting in Dar es Salaam organized by the Pure Earth organization.
The meeting, held on Thursday, was meant to bring together formal and informal dealers of waste car batteries in Dar es Salaam city.
During the meeting, it was learnt that informal dealers were improperly handling such waste, something which endangered their health and environment.
Sharing their experiences, some of informal dealers said after collecting the used lead acid batteries (ULAB) they dismantle them and pour the acid onto the soil before going to sell them to recyclers.
Mr Nanai Machaba, an informal dealer from Temeke district, confided to the meeting that he used to dismantle the used batteries and dug a hole into which he poured the acid.
His confession was echoed by another dealer, Mr Daudi Patrick, who explained: I just look at batteries after getting them from collectors and disassemble them carefully to avoid the acid getting to my skin.
He added: I make sure that I wear gloves and facemask before breaking the batteries as preventive measures.
Mr Patrick also said he used to dig a hole into the soil for emptying the acid batteries before selling them to recyclers.
The informal dealers sell the used batteries to recyclers per each kilogramme.
The dealers unanimously said they were forced to empty batteries from lead acid because the recyclers were not accepting batteries with acid to avoid additional weight.
After hearing of how informal dealers were handling the battery acid, Managing Director of Chilambo General Trade Company Limited, which deals with electronic waste management, Mr Gedion Chilambo, said this is how the informal dealers conduct their activities, so you can see how much the liquid battery acid is poured into soil.
He criticized the recyclers for diverging from responsibility of neutralizing the acid to save the environment, and they instead, they leave this responsibility to informal dealers who do it improperly.
Mr Chilambo educated the participants how to handle such acid, saying they should pour acid into a ditch with cemented floor and walls to avoid the acid from leaching, noting that such acid affects living organisms in the soil.
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