The Mall Luton will be the first UK shopping centre to begin a trial recycling scheme which will allow shoppers to bring their old batteries to the centre for recycling. The end-of-life battery recycling scheme will begin in trial form beginning on February 1, 2011.
The launch of the programme is planned to coincide with the kick-off for the UK’s Batteries Directives, which will begin after a new EU-wide ruling has called for stricter targets for battery recycling, collection, and manufacturing.
The Batteries Directives is designed to efficiently implement better programmes and procedures to insure that the 600 million batteries currently going to waste in the UK are redirected to recycling centres for reuse.
If the trial at The Mall Luton is successful, the programme will then be implemented into malls across the country. The trial is sponsored in part by Varta, a major UK battery manufacturer. Each year, on average, a UK household disposes of up to 21 batteries which are sent to landfills. That translates to more than 22 tonnes of battery waste which is not being recycled. Varta and the Batteries Directive are hoping to cut that number down drastically.
The new battery recycling trial is part of a larger project of The Mall’s called EnviroMall initiative. The Mall is committed to decreasing their impact on the environment by implementing recycling programmes and emissions reducing schemes. Lavinia Holland, the marketing manager for The Mall Luton, said that shoppers in Luton are always supportive of The Mall’s efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
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