The main problem with this entire half arsed governmental plan (as always) is they dream up these things, get it enforced on people and the retailer is left wonder wtf are they supposed to do with the batteries?

The local councils won't take them, the gov's given no information at all on what to do with them to the retailers. The only companies with any clue are the supermarkets who have the scale and resources to know internally to send them back to head office to process down the line in bulk.

How the hell can they do something like this to the tens of thousands of shops without any kind of actual system to dispose of them?!

Recycling companies charge money to take household batteries. How many shop managers will think "hmm, I can pay a stiff fee for collection by a licensed waste carrier and recycling or I can empty the battery recycling bin into the skip along with all the other rubbish".

A newspaper article reported that the law says old batteries can only be taken away by a licensed waste carrier. Supermarkets can't have their delivery lorrys take them back to a central depot for efficient transport. How enviromentally friendly is having a man in a van make a special trip to collect a few old AA's?

No, not the Australian type but our European ones. They recycle nearly 100% of batteries according to the BBC last night.

Why don't we copy them if that's what we want to achieve.

I also don't like the way the article implies this has been imposed on us: "a new rule from Europe". It's a rule we agreed to (well what passes for our government agreed to, to be precise), not something a remote bunch of people decided to force us to do.

anyone know why disposable batteries still exist?

ah, disposables make more profit for the battery companies. money at the expense of the environment.

when will these greedy people learn? no planet = no money

There are a few brands around which claim to retain 97% charge after 30 days and 50% after 12 months.

My utterly unscientific test (I left a charged one in a drawer for a year by mistake) backs those claims up.

This should have been made compulsary years ago!

"We need more local authorities to take used batteries from homes and a more consistent recycling regime for all materials. Incompatible schemes for dealing with different waste products - batteries, electricals, glass, plastics - confuse people and hold back overall recycling rates." EXACTLY!!

Couldn't have said it better myself!

I wish Shropshire Council (SC) would collect plastic from the kerbside. But I shouldn't complain too much, SC are a lot better than some other councils in the country when it comes to recycling.

They only recycle plastic bottles at their recycling depot (aka the tip) in the industrial estate out of town at the moment. I want to be able to recycle plastic food packaging, scratched/unplayable/misburnt CD(R)s/DVD(R)s, cling-film, and the LDPE polythene air bags/packaging you get in boxes of stuff you order online.

Incompatible schemes for dealing with different waste products ... confuse people and hold back overall recycling rates."

That's right, so a scheme where all exotic waste goes back to the retailer makes sense to me, although I'm not that this is what the spokesperson was thinking :-)

Also, deposit schemes work well. Here in South Australia there's a 20c deposit on drink containers. Even if you throw away one of these containers the kids or homeless will pick it up within hours.

why don't "they" just slap a tidy deposit on throw away batteries and increase the price or tax to cover the extra hassle.

That will get them from 3% to 95% within months and have the added bonus that
the extra cost might discourage people from buying these ridiculous one way batteries.

As long as these things are cheep as chips to buy and nobody is paying you to take them back , they will continue to be purchased and thrown away with the rest of the rubbish.

Any high-capacity NiMH AA should give you plenty of gaming time out of your Wiimotes provided you've charged them just before use - I use 2800mAh ones from 7dayshop in mine, and they easily last for a 2-3 hour gaming session if fully charged.

The problem with regular NiMH batteries is their high self-discharge rate, so whilst they might give you x hours of gaming time straight out the charger, if you charge them and then leave them in the Wiimote for a few weeks before your next gaming session, you'll not get the same runtime out of them. I'm now experimenting with some of the new breed of NiMH batteries (Hybrio, Eneloop etc.) which trade off maximum capacity for significantly reduced self-discharge rates - the ones I'm using at the moment are "only" 2100mAh, but unlike the regular NiMH's, I know these ones will still be holding as near as damnit a full charge even a couple of months after coming out the charger if they haven't been used in the meantime, whereas their regular NiMH cousins would be pretty much dead by then.

Why don't people buy a battery charger that recharges Ni-MH and Alkaline ones?

Maplin sells one - N44HJ

It's been possible for at least 10 years now to recharge Alkaline batteries about 6 times. OK, not a huge amount but better that just using them once.

If they made this ability compulsory in battery chargers, the world would be a better place!

I'm tending to buy more rechargeable batteries nowadays, especially now Poundland is selling cheap rechargeables. They're not much good for high drain applications but are great for remote controls and the kids MP3 players.

All I need to do now is find a rechargeable battery with enough juice to last more than an hour in my Wiimotes, I've tried those recharging stations but the one I had was crap, the batteries lasted all of about 30 mins and took 8 hours to charge. Thank god for my 1 hour charger.

Rob

P.S. What about iPhone owners, should they just chuck the iPhone away and get a new one... oh hang on they do anyway don't they, every 6 months when a new one is released?

but I think it might be better to ban devices that dont run on rechargeable.
A lot of effort seems to be put into making things that could easily run on rechargeables not function on them.
I know somethings wont work on them but others seem deliberately crippled..

Lets hope they take the necessary precautions with this. I read in an article once upon a time a crate containing suposed empty batteries, either exploded or caught fire because the ends of the batteries weren't insulated.