Hara maheshvara shulapani pinakadhrik pashupati shiva mahadeva
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Battery recycling is compulsory
FROM TODAY any retailer that sells batteries will also be responsible for their recycling.
This means that whenever your remote controlled helicopter or racing car runs out of batteries you simply drop off the old ones when you pick up your new ones. The change in binning practices is the result of a new rule from Europe that dictates how and when batteries should be discarded.
Rather than relying in the consumer to do the right thing with batteries, the EU says that retailers should take the responsibility, a move backed by Defra in the UK.
"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," the body says, adding that the average household uses some 21 batteries a year.
Environment Minister Huw Irranca-Davies added, ""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."
Currently, according to Defra, the UK manages to recycle about three percent of its batteries. It expects that by offering easy to find bins in shops it can increase this number to 45 percent by 2016.
The British Retail Consortium was keen on the idea, but less happy with its design. In a statement its head of environment, a Bob Gordon said, "The aim of reducing the number of batteries going to landfill is a good one. Retailers recognise their responsibilities and they're ready with the facilities the law requires but on its own that won't be enough."
Rather than rely on every man and his corner shop to do the work of recyclers, the BRC thinks that others should chip in to keep things moving. "Informing customers isn't all down to retailers. We need a comprehensive and continuing information campaign. And shops can't be the only route for collection. We need an infrastructure to develop which includes workplaces, schools, community centres and kerbside collection," explained Gordon.
Perhaps mindful of the need to install another brightly coloured carrier bag next to his bin for dealing with on recycling missions, Gordon added, "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."
If you have never heard of rechargeable batteries and wish to dispose of your normal ones in the appropriate manner, you should look out for the Be Positive sign. µ
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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.
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..
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?
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!
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 "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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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?!