London -- It’s over a year since a new law on battery recycling came in to force, setting battery recycling targets for the UK and requiring battery producers to pay for the collection and recycling of a proportion of all batteries sold. A new survey of 11-16 year olds, published today, found that well over half - 58 percent - have never recycled a household battery. Of these, an incredible 38 pecent said the main reason was they did not know that batteries could be recycled.

The survey, commissioned by European Recycling Platform (ERP), one of the UK’s leading electrical waste and battery recycling schemes, found that school, college or work place collection points help encourage recycling. Over a quarter - 26 percent - cited this as the one thing that would most encourage 11 to 16 year olds to recycle more batteries.

Scott Butler, General Manager of ERP, said: “I’m really surprised that some youngsters don’t know batteries can be recycled, especially as so many toys and gadgets use batteries. But our survey suggests that providing collection points in schools and letting kids know about them will encourage recycling. We’re hoping more schools will sign up for our free battery recycling service and look at all our resources for young people.”

Half of the young people - 51 percent - said that they didn’t know if there was a battery recycling collection point near where they live or go to school, in spite of the fact that there are thousands of collection points in libraries, schools, offices and shops all around the country. For the past year, every shop that sells over 32 kg of batteries (one four-pack of AA batteries a day) is legally required to collect batteries for recycling.

Based on such low awareness, the UK could struggle to meet its legal target to recycle 45 percent of all batteries sold by 2016 and even the 2012 target of 25 percent could be a challenge. In 2009, just two percent of batteries were recycled in the UK.

The good news: More than a third of 11-16 year olds - 36 percent - have recycled a household battery.

Quelle: European Recycling Platform (ERP)

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