It is estimated that in 2000, almost 19,000 tonnes of waste general purpose batteries and 113,000 tonnes of waste automotive batteries required disposal in the UK.
Currently, only a very small percentage of consumer disposable batteries are recycled (less than 2%) and most waste batteries are disposed of in landfill sites. The rate for recycling of consumer rechargeable batteries is estimated to be 5%.
Currently, only a very small percentage of consumer disposable batteries are recycled (less than 2%) and most waste batteries are disposed of in landfill sites. The rate for recycling of consumer rechargeable batteries is estimated to be 5%.
Wider use of rechargeable batteries would reduce the number of batteries being disposed every year and therefore reduce the number that find their way to the landfill sites. Ultimately even rechargables need to be disposed of. This should be done in an environmentally safe manner - batteries shouldn't just be thrown out with the household trash.
1 comment:
Nice close-up.
We use mostly rechargeables, especially in the kids' toys, not least because of the expense of constantly replacing batteries. But I have to confess that the infrequent waste batteries from the small number of gadgets we have that do use regular batteries, have been put in the general waste (please don't send the kneecap squad after me!). But now that you have drawn my attention to this, I shall definitely find out where to better get rid of them for recycling. Thanks for the tip. Between you and fatheroftwo, you'll clean the world of waste batteries yet! ;-)
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