And People argue that the UK’s not doing enough for the environment!!
This written question is interesting- its another example of how good we are at recycling:
Mr. Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of batteries were recycled in each European Union country in the last year for which figures are available.
Mr. Bradshaw: Information on percentage of batteries recycled in European Union countries is not readily available for all battery chemistries. Member states have not been required to provide this in the past. However, officials are in the process of acquiring this data.
Portable battery (small consumer type batteries—used in phones, clocks, watches, cameras) collection rates are available for 2002 for the following countries:
Collection rate as percentage of sales in 2002
Austria- 44
Belgium- 59
France- 16
Germany- 39
Netherlands- 32
Sweden- 55
Spain- 14
And how many does the UK recycle?
UK- 0.5
A little room for improvement you could say.
February 9th, 2006 at 11:32 am
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Batteries.htm has a reasonably up-to-date view of battery recycling in the UK and some technical details. The problem seems to be that there’s no widespread public collection scheme e.g. at supermarkets. Sustained public pressure on councils could lead to action but mandatory targets would be a lot more effective.
February 17th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
Looks like the EU are getting in on this issue too… eetimes
May 5th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
[...] Looks like the EU has finally taken action on battery recycling…it’s about time, especially looking at the UK’s poor record as we reported here in February. [...]
November 26th, 2006 at 9:52 am
[...] We’ve mentioned the UKs abysmal performance at battery recycling a couple of times before so I pleased to read this morning that battery collection schemes are to become more widespread. The extension, announced by Waste and Resources Action Programme, will bring battery collections to a total of 750000 households (still quite a few to go obviously). It has to be said that changes to the design of personal electronics from using disposable batteries to rechargeable packs have significantly decreased the number of batteries that I get through a year but recycling schemes for the remainder are still inaccessible (or very badly publicised). With an EU target of 25% of batteries recycled by 2012 we can hopefully expect to see more announcements of this sort. [...]