01 February 2010

Recycle your batteries the easy way...
It's now much easier to recycle your used batteries.

New rules mean that from today, any retailer who sells over 32kg of batteries per year (about 1 pack of 4 AAs a day) is required to provide a free recycling point for consumers to return their used / flat batteries. In practice, this means that most retailers who sell batteries will now have a collection point; making it easier for everyone to recycle.

On average, each UK household uses 21 batteries per year - that's over 600 million - with a staggering 97% of those going to landfill where harmful chemicals can leak into the soil. The new rules should enable us to significantly increase our collection and recycling rates from 3% to 25% by 2012 increasing to 45% by 2016.

batteryAs around 50% of toys commonly found in UK households require batteries, Environment Minister Huw Irranca-Davies was joined by children's favourites Roary the Racing Car, Big Chris and Fifi to launch Defra's new 'Be Positive' campaign.

Mr Irranca-Davies said:

"This new legislation will make it easier for consumers to do the right thing whilst ensuring retailers fulfil their part of the bargain. Old batteries can cause harm to the environment when they are not recycled. The new approach to disposal of batteries will help to reduce the number of batteries that now end up in landfill."

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