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Nebraska Medicine and UNMC are partnering with the Omaha Fire Department to provide batteries for its free smoke detector initiative. Bryan Hess, who works in environmental health and safety at UNMC, collects batteries from buildings across the hospital and university. “I realized how many batteries came out of the hospital, all of them still had a charge,” Hess said. Hess takes the batteries to a recycler, but he noted that it costs money and is still wasteful. “Reduce, reuse, recycle in that order,” Hess said. Now, the program includes an extra step: sorting. Volunteers across the hospital and university check the charge levels of the batteries, and Hess said roughly two-thirds of them still have at least 70% charge. These batteries are saved and repurposed. Since the program began around the beginning of the year, nearly 250 pounds of batteries have been donated. “Every battery that gets thrown away that still has charge means that another battery has to get, you know, the minerals have to get mined. It has to be put together. That takes energy. It has to be manufactured,” said Andrew Kershner, a physician assistant who leads Nebraska Medicine’s “LiveGreen” volunteer employees group. Kershner remembered the Omaha Fire Department’s free smoke detector program and saw an opportunity to help. “One of the big things that we have issues with sometimes is making sure we have enough batteries to get in all these smoke detectors that people already have,” said Capt. Nick Lemek of the fire department’s public education division. Thanks to the donations, Lemek said the department now has plenty of batteries to assist with those calls. He says anyone who lives in Omaha and needs a smoke detector installed or batteries for installed smoke detectors can reach out to the fire department.”It’s sort of a triple win,” Kershner said. “We’re reusing them. We’re helping out the community, folks who maybe otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford these batteries. And we’re helping out the fire department too, helping their bottom line a little bit as well.”There are so many batteries that still have power, though Kershner might be looking for additional partners who could use some batteries.
Nebraska Medicine and UNMC are partnering with the Omaha Fire Department to provide batteries for its free smoke detector initiative.
Bryan Hess, who works in environmental health and safety at UNMC, collects batteries from buildings across the hospital and university.
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“I realized how many batteries came out of the hospital, all of them still had a charge,” Hess said.
Hess takes the batteries to a recycler, but he noted that it costs money and is still wasteful.
“Reduce, reuse, recycle in that order,” Hess said.
Now, the program includes an extra step: sorting. Volunteers across the hospital and university check the charge levels of the batteries, and Hess said roughly two-thirds of them still have at least 70% charge. These batteries are saved and repurposed.
Since the program began around the beginning of the year, nearly 250 pounds of batteries have been donated.
“Every battery that gets thrown away that still has charge means that another battery has to get, you know, the minerals have to get mined. It has to be put together. That takes energy. It has to be manufactured,” said Andrew Kershner, a physician assistant who leads Nebraska Medicine’s “LiveGreen” volunteer employees group.
Kershner remembered the Omaha Fire Department’s free smoke detector program and saw an opportunity to help.
“One of the big things that we have issues with sometimes is making sure we have enough batteries to get in all these smoke detectors that people already have,” said Capt. Nick Lemek of the fire department’s public education division.
Thanks to the donations, Lemek said the department now has plenty of batteries to assist with those calls. He says anyone who lives in Omaha and needs a smoke detector installed or batteries for installed smoke detectors can reach out to the fire department.
“It’s sort of a triple win,” Kershner said. “We’re reusing them. We’re helping out the community, folks who maybe otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford these batteries. And we’re helping out the fire department too, helping their bottom line a little bit as well.”
There are so many batteries that still have power, though Kershner might be looking for additional partners who could use some batteries.
