Eu mandates battery recycling

[LiberalEsto]

BBC:

"The European Union has agreed the text of a law that will make recycling of batteries obligatory from 2008. The directive will ban most batteries with more than a trace of the toxic chemicals cadmium or mercury.

It says a quarter of all used batteries must be collected by 2012 - rising to 45% by 2016 - and that at least half of them must be recycled. It also says all batteries must be clearly labelled to show how long they will last, from 2009 onwards."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4969544.stm

Why is the U.S. not doing this? We use an incredible number of batteries, which get dumped into landfills and leach mercury and cadmium into the ground.

When I lived in New Jersey, my town (Somerset - Franklin Township) collected used batteries during weekly curbside recycling pickups. We put them into self-sealing plastic bags on top of the other recyclables. When we moved to Maryland, I called Montgomery County and asked if they recycled batteries. They don't, and they don't know what you should do with them.

[lindisfarne]

1. Some states do *mandate* battery recycling. WA, MN, CA are 3.

The problem is compliance. (In CA, you're not even supposed to throw small appliances (like toasters) in the trash; you're supposed to take them to the dump for proper disposal. But I guarantee less than 5% actually are disposed of properly.

[LiberalEsto]

3. That's great.

I'm going to look it up and send the info to our county council.

[lindisfarne]

4. I doubt you'll get your county to do it. But, you could organize a group

of people to ask businesses to set out battery collection bins and then go around and collect them and take the batteries to whereever hazardous waste in your community goes. Over 15 years ago, when MN started requiring them to be collected, lots of businesses had collection bins out. Now, you don't see them as much (and I no longer live in MN so I don't know what people do with their old batteries or why the collection bins disappeared). MN got concerned about the batteries when they built an incinerator near Downtown Mpls. and were worried at that time about mercury getting into the air - now most batteries don't contain mercury but they contain other things you don't want getting into the water supply and ground.

This would be a good project for a school group, an Eagle scout project, or just some concerned and committed citizens.

Businesses might be worried about corroded batteries being collected; usually what I've seen done is people are asked to put them in a plastic bag and ideally, the bin would be collected fairly soon. (If it was a huge deal, the business could just not take the corroded battery and explain that they're concerned about the danger.)

[rfkrfk]

2. the EU should concern itself with something more important...

food safety.

Is is possible for an egg to go out of date or have
issues with the supplier.

every egg should have a serial number

[Nihil]

5. Why don't you just ...

... quit with the dumbass attempts to shut down every thread
that show a positive environmental action?

:eyes:

[rfkrfk]

6. the oceans are being destroyed...

deserts are expanding
many cities are cloaked in smog
etc

the EU's compliance with the Kyoto treaty looks shakey,
and the EU is worried about
collecting used batteries,