Warwickshire 'ever ready’ for new battery directive
This month sees a new European Directive come into force specifying the ways in which batteries must be produced and disposed of, and Warwickshire County Council is not only set for the changes, but has been taking action for some time.
The Directive restricts the amounts of hazardous materials such as mercury and cadmium that can be used in the manufacture of batteries as well as specifying the requirement for consumers to have easily accessible collection points for recycling spent portable batteries.
The new Directive lays down minimum collection and recycling rates, which must be achieved and by 2012 25% of all batteries sold must be collected for treatment or recycling. This rises to 45% in 2016.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “Although the Directive does not require that facilities are made available for collecting and recycling batteries until 2008, provisions for collecting both household and automotive batteries have been available within Warwickshire for some time.
“In fact in the last year more than 300 tonnes of batteries were collected for recycling within the county.”
Containers for collecting and recycling batteries can be found at the majority of the Household Waste Recycling Centres in Warwickshire.
For more details and to locate your closest battery recycling facility please visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/waste or call the Waste Management team on 01926 412593.