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Battery collection - Poor record in the UK

When it comes to the collection, treatment and recycling of batteries you would expect the UK to be up there with the best, wouldn't you?

Well, you would be wrong, big time!

Figures from the European Battery Recyclers Association lists Switzerland as the top battery collector at 65%, followed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and France. The UK comes in 15th place at 3% alongside Turkey, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

A survey conducted a couple of years ago by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) found the average UK household sends 21 portable batteries a year to landfill - a total of 600 million units - exposing soil and water to the risk of contamination by heavy metals.

According to the Ecologist every year the equivalent of 110  jumbo jets' weight in old batteries end up in landfill.

The 3% collection of portable batteries has to increase to 25% by 2012 and 45% by 2016 in line with targets set in the New Battery Directive.

Moving forward, collection schemes will be financed by Producers and retailers will be required to offer take back facilities.

Without doubt, there needs to be a significant step change if targets are to be met in the UK.

 

Directive Decoder

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on June 30, 2009 3:11 PM.

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