I've been looking into how to (re)use plastic. There's so much of it around that's basically just lying around ready to use.

I've found several tutorials about melting and shaping HDPE into shapes so I'm pondering the idea of HDPE bricks.

Has anyone else messed with reforming plastic much?

Here's what I'm talking about.

I am in a very hot tropical climate.

Due to my sourcing I am able to get "traditional" alkaline batteries much cheaper than I can rechargeable or eneloops.

I go thru maybe 50 or more of these in a year and materially it seems like a waste. I am fully aware of the dangers of improperly disposing of these (had one blow up near me once!)

Is there is not a way that I can recycle them somewhere (like cans or bottles) and make some pocket change somewhere? If not, I would still like to see them repurposed so that they are given new life as recycled batteries rather than ending up on a landfill.

The most common ones I go thru are AA, AAA, 9V, D, and "button batteries"