The end of 2009 brought with it the promise of a greener 2010. The United Nations summit on climate change that took place in December was a failure by most accounts, as it did not produce a binding resolution about carbon emissions. One area in which it did succeed was in raising awareness about the importance of environmental issues. Even if the world leaders did failed to iron out a deal, they did get people talking, which is sometimes all that it takes to start a movement. As the new year is upon us countries have used the clean slate to launch a slew of new laws and regulations aimed at doing the job that the summit failed to do, which is to make sustainable lifestyles part of the law.
One change that many countries are making is to shift the responsibility of recycling and waste management to groups and businesses as opposed to individuals. Although individuals in the United Kingdom have done a good job at helping raise recycling rates, some of the new laws hoped to make those responsible for producing things also responsible for cleaning them up. This led to the European Union launching a new battery recycling scheme which forces big producers of batteries to offer free recycling as well as free collection for their industrial and automotive clients. With literally billions of batteries on the market it is impossible to keep track of who buys them, so by putting the responsibility on businesses it makes for a much smaller group to account for.
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