As the New Year began a variety of new recycling laws went into effect in the United Kingdom. One of the most important ones revolves around the recycling of batteries, which is a major issue in the UK and around the world as batteries are recycled at very low rates which means most of them end up in landfills. Now only do batteries take up valuable space in landfills but they often leak harmful chemicals into the environment which can lead to the contamination of water. The UK decided to put the responsibility for recycling on the shoulders of the businesses who are manufacturing and selling the batteries, as it is much easier to regulate an industry than it is to regulate millions of individuals. Even though the new laws require battery manufacturers to offer free recycling and collection, it still will not work without the help of individual citizens.
This is why the government of the UK has rolled out a campaign aimed at raising awareness about the thousands of new battery recycling locations around the UK. Until this point it might not have been obvious where or how batteries were supposed to be recycled but now people really have no excuse as there are recycling bins in the same locations where they are purchasing the batteries. The government is encouraging people to remember to bring old batteries to the store where they are buying new ones to insure that they don’t end up in landfills.
Directgov has estimated that twelve thousand tonnes of carbon could be kept out of the environment if the UK reaches its battery recycling goals.
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