Your Old Car Battery Might Be Poisoning Puttalam — Do You Even Ask Where It Goes?

Environmentalists say over a million tonnes of toxic lead slag has piled up across Sri Lanka, most of it around Puttalam, with more than 2,000 unregulated recycling yards melting down old car and bike batteries and dumping an estimated 5,000 tonnes of battery acid straight into the ground every year. Every petrol, diesel, hybrid and tuk owner replaces a lead-acid battery every few years — most of us just hand the dead one to the shop, take the discount on the new one, and never ask what happens next. One side says this is squarely a state failure: with no licensed collection network and no real enforcement on these smelters, blaming ordinary owners changes nothing. The other side says buyers aren't innocent either — selling your old battery to whoever pays most in cash, no questions asked, is exactly what keeps these informal yards running instead of proper recyclers. Do you actually know where your old battery ends up when you trade it in? Have you ever asked a garage or shop if their recycler is licensed, or just taken the best price and moved on? ඔයාගේ පරණ බැටරිය දෙන කොට, ඒක කොහෙද යනවාද කියලා කවදා හරි අහලද?