Household Waste Recycling Centres get light and battery power!

Date published: 14/11/2005

The small, innocuous-looking batteries may ensure that your alarm clock wakes you up in the morning.  But they are also a potential time bomb - because they contain heavy metals, which make them an environmental hazard when they are thrown away with domestic waste and taken to landfill sites.

To counter this threat and help achieve its recycling targets Rochdale Council in partnership with Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) and Greater Manchester Waste Ltd is now offering residents the chance to recycle used dry cell batteries at three Household Waste Recycling Centres across the borough.

Residents are also being offered the chance to recycle old fluorescent tubes of which an estimated 80 million are sent to landfill every year. This equates to some 3000 tonnes of waste, (of which 4 tonnes is mercury), whilst the contents of a single tube can pollute up to 30,000 litres of water!

The site is located in Chichester Street, Rochdale and has recently undergone a facelift that has seen new lighting and signage installed. Across the borough, several new members of staff have been employed to help residents sort out their waste.

Commenting on the expansion of the recycling facilities, Tara Dumas Waste Minimisation Manager said:

“This initiative is another part Rochdale Council’s drive to encourage people to recycle as much as possible and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill sites. Nationally, around 700,000 million household batteries - amounting to 30,000 tonnes worth - are sent to landfill sites every year.  The recycling rate for dead car batteries is 90 per cent but for used dry cell batteries it is currently only 5 per cent.”

Earlier this year Britain’s first household batteries recycling plant opened in the West Midlands. The privately owned plant is capable of reprocessing up to 1,500 tonnes of waste alkaline and zinc carbon batteries each year.