Some segments of the recycling industry have been growing at breakneck speed while others still lag behind. While the United Kingdom does well at recycling items like plastic, paper, and aluminum they have fallen behind when it comes to steel, organic waste, and electronics. E-waste can be particularly harmful, as it not only takes up valuable space in landfills but batteries from electronic devices can be very harmful to the environment. When batteries leak they can put harmful chemicals into the soil that eventually find their way into water supplies. As the Christmas season draws near there will be millions of gifts given which means hundreds of millions of batteries. The European Recycling Platform hopes that this Christmas season people will dispose of batteries in the proper way.
The European Recycling Platform recently performed a study that found that only about a third of households in the United Kingdom recycle batteries. However, this number could increase dramatically if battery recycling was made easier. Eighty percent of those surveyed said that they would be more likely to recycle batteries if the whole process was made easier. Studies have shown that the two biggest motivating factors for recycling are incentives like cash and ease. If recycling takes very little effort people will do it. Currently only about three percent of the six hundred million batteries used in the United Kingdom will be recycled.
The EU Batteries Directive mandates that countries get the rate of battery recycling to around twenty five percent, which means that Britain has a long way to go when it comes to recycling batteries.
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