Batteries are a growing waste problem. While many millions of batteries are sold in Australia each year, less than 5% get recycled.
That’s quite disturbing.
Some batteries contain toxic materials such as mercury and cadmium. Small (button) batteries are a choking hazard. Lithium batteries can cause fires, and on top of that batteries contain a range of useful, recoverable materials.
But boosting battery recycling rates is actually really easy.
Whether you are dealing with household quantities of old batteries, or tonnes of them, all it takes is a little bit of planning.
In the home (and small business)
Designate a suitable jam jar, ice cream container, small cardboard box or other non-metallic container as your home (or small office) battery collection container.
Make sure it stays out of reach of children and tell your family (or colleagues) that this is where they need to put old batteries once they die.
Every so often, take your container to one of the increasing number of organisations that run larger scale battery collection programs. These include:
- Mr Minute kiosks
- IKEA stores
- Council offices and waste and recycling depots
- Battery retailers, hardware and office supply stores.
Find your nearest battery recycling collection point at recyclingnearyou.com.au.
Medium-sized organisations
We give your business an easy step-by-step guide to set up your own battery recycling scheme.
For an even bigger environmental benefit, encourage your employees to bring their old batteries from home.
It will help them see that, when combined with the efforts of others, their small contributions make a real difference to the planet.
Big organisations
Establishing and promoting in-house battery collection is a great way for larger retailers in relevant sectors to demonstrate their commitment to the environment.
It’s also an effective way to attract more people in-store.
Ecocycle are experts in designing and implementing custom recycling programs for a range of e-waste, including batteries, across a range of industries.
These can be scaled from the bucket load to the truckload.
We even provide selected clients with our innovative degraded battery storage boxes specifically designed to prevent and contain lithium battery fires.
Take the next step in lifting your organisation’s recycling rate.
Give us a call on 1300 32 62 92 or fill in the contact form below and let’s talk battery recycling.
In summary:
- Designate a suitable battery collection container
- Drop batteries off at a collection program
- Find your nearest battery recycling collection point at recyclingnearyou.com.au
- For organisations with large volumes of batteries, contact Ecocycle for recycling options.
