We seldom notice smoke detectors, except for the odd unpleasant squeak when the batteries need to be changed. They are, nonetheless, a crucial element of your fire safety equipment since they supply critical early notice when anything is amiss. The small spherical life savers are around, yet we seldom see them.  

Three out of every five fire deaths occur in houses with no or inoperable smoke alarms. Fires in which no smoke alarms are present cause more than one-third (38%) of residential fire deaths. In houses with functional smoke alarms, the chance of dying in a house fire is decreased by half. So, when these become obsolete, or their life runs out, it's necessary to recycle smoke detectors so that you can remain protected. 

Importance of Smoke Detector Kits 

In the unfortunate case of a fire, you risk losing your home to substantial damage, receiving serious injuries, the chance of death, and even total property loss. A smoke alarm in the house is vital for the early discovery of a fire. Smoke alarms save lives when professionally installed and supported regularly. 

What kind of Smoke Detectors are there? 

There are 2 types of smoke alarms, Photoelectric and Ionization. Knowing the difference between them could potentially save your life. 

Photo Electric Smoke Detectors 

A photoelectric smoke alarm is a smoke alarm that detects fire by measuring oscillations in a light beam. This smoke alarm is extremely sensitive, making it ideal for detecting smoldering fires that burn slowly and at low temperatures, such as flames in furniture and mattresses, or fires in curtains and beneath carpets.  

Photoelectric smoke alarms are widely available at local hardware stores. Some fire departments and fire safety organizations supply these smoke alarms for free to the public. The free smoke alarm, on the other hand, is a public service effort that may be limited to specific cities or municipalities.  

These kinds of smoke detectors are not toxic, and they do not hold any hazardous material. You do not need to recycle smoke detectors of this type, once the battery is removed (and disposed of properly), these types of smoke alarms are safe to be put in the trash. 

Ionization Smoke Detectors 

An ionization smoke detector is a type of fire alarm that includes an ionization chamber that is held up by two plates with voltage separating them. Smoke entering the chamber displaces electrons present between the two plates, causing an alarm to sound. 

This alarm system has been shown to save lives, reduce burn injuries, and preserve commercial assets from fire damage in the workplace. Ionization smoke detectors are distinguished by their ability to find the existence of a fire threat even when the fire source produces minimal smoke. Ionization smoke detectors sense smoke by using a small quantity of radioactive material, americium-241. 

Why Do You Need Smoke Detector Kits? 

Most alarms have a life duration of 8-10 years, according to the US Fire Administration. The complete device should be replaced after this time. Most smoke detectors are wired into residential electrical systems. They do; however, each have backup batteries in case the power goes out. Older variants are entirely powered by batteries.

Batteries for smoke detectors should all be recycled. Circuit boards, metals, including gold, and plastic are all used in photoelectric and ionization detectors. Throwing stuff trash is an efficient use of resources and worsens our plastic pollution concerns. 

The principal source of unfavorable health consequences from absorbed americium is radiation. When americium enters the body by any method of exposure, it goes quickly through the body and accumulates on the surfaces of the bones, where it promotes bone cancer.

Extremely high doses of americium have been linked to organ damage in several animal studies, including the lungs, liver, kidneys, and thyroid. However, it is uncommon for a person to be exposed to levels of americium high enough to cause injury to these organs. To make sure that human life is secure and safe, we urge the people to recycle smoke detectors. 

Recycle Technologies’ Smoke Detector Kits  

Our primary goal at Recycle Technologies is to conserve and protect the environment for a more sustainable future. We recycle smoke detectors so that we can prevent hazardous materials from winding up in landfills and incinerators. 

The 5-gallon Smoke Detector Kit from Recycle Technologies has a plastic pail, a high-duty recyclable cardboard box (pail must be returned in the cardboard box), a thick plastic liner, a zip tie to secure the liner for shipment, and a pre-paid return mailing label. 

We supply a 6′′ x 6′′ x 6′′ Recycling Kit Box for consumers and modest commercial recycling needs. This box is particularly intended to handle Americium-241 safely (other radioactive products will not be accepted). This program is only for smoke detectors that have no more than 5 microcuries of Americium-241. 

Another one of our consumer or light commercial recycling needs is our 28-gallon Smoke Detector Recycling Kit. The main difference is that it comes with a 28-gallon poly collection container, as well as a comparable thick plastic liner, zip tie to seal liner for mailing, and pre-paid return shipping label as the 5-gallon one.