Moray introduces battery recycling

Date Added - 10/11/09

Household batteries have become the latest items to be accepted for recycling by Moray Council.

Receptacles have been sited at the council’s recycling centres at Elgin, Forres, Keith and Buckie to help meet an EU directive which will become law next year.

The directive requires that 25% by weight of all household batteries are collected for recycling by 2012, rising to 45% in 2016.

It represents a challenging target given that the current collection rate in Britain is only around 2.3%.

The four recycling centres will accept all non-lead acid battery types – typically single-cell batteries such as AA, AAA, button and square batteries.

The average household uses 21 batteries a year, all of which could be recycled.

Moray Council already has one of the highest recycling rates among all Scottish local authorities for items such as paper, cardboard, glass and tin cans.

Councillor John Russell, chairman of the council’s economic development and infrastructure services committee, said: “Most people are conscious of the risk to the environment of putting batteries to landfill and the necessity for Moray to make continuous improvements in our recycling figures.

“I welcome this addition to the range of materials capable of being recycled within Moray and I think we will all be willing to start segregating batteries from other waste and drop them off at the main recycling centres when convenient.”