There was a story in the news a few years ago about a woman who bought a cup of hot coffee from a McD***lds drive-up window. She apparently didn't have a cup holder (why that is the companies fault I'll never know) and put it between her thighs to drive off. There was a spill, and the woman suffered significant burns to her....um...lets call it her "lap".
Long story...(many details here removed)...the jury awarded her a multi-million dollar settlement.
The recycled lead in those batteries is worth a lot, but to throw away 10 years of battery life is truly sad. I'm sure it has something to do with liability. I would be more than willing to sign a liability waiver, and pay scrap weight price for those batteries, but tort lawyers have established that you can't sign away your rights, so everyone is afraid of being sued. ("You did not adequately inform my client that these batteries contained ACID! and all the possible risks!")
Lazy politicians and bureaucrats could have donated them (or sold at a reduced price) to a college for an "RE awareness" project. The news programs love that particular brand of manure. I'm not holding my breath, waiting for it to change anytime soon...
"The only difference between a dead snake lying in the road, and a dead lawyer lying in the road,...is that there are skid marks before the snake." -Patrick Murray.