WEEE – Battery Recycling is Good for us

WEEE Ireland’s Battery Recycling Challenge is urging everyone to become battery recycling champions at home, at work, in school and in your community!

Recycle your waste batteries in our Blue Battery Boxes at retailers and Local Authority Recycling Centres, to help tackle climate change, protect our environment and support LauraLynn, Ireland’s Children’s Hospice. Learn more about the challenge here.

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The millions of batteries not recycled every year means the lose of precious materials and important resources that can only be replaced by mining. The environmental and social costs of extracting and processing the materials required for battery manufacturing, can be huge. 

Recycle for Safety and Reuse

Young consumers are being urged to stop binning used batteries – as a survey revealed almost half of 18-34-year-olds are placing them in the trash. An online survey by Empathy Research reveals that more than a quarter (28%) of people are unaware that batteries contain valuable resources such as cobalt, zinc, nickel and lithium, which can be used again.  

Battery recycling is a recycling activity which aims to reduce the number of batteries being disposed off as domestic or solid waste. Batteries contain a number of valuable material as well as toxic chemicals and heavy metals which means disposing of them in regular household or office waste raised concerns about water pollution and soil contamination.

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Demand for Batteries 

Global demand for  batteries is forecast to rise 7.8% per year over the coming years. Rapidly expanding production of hybrid and electric cars in Europe and the US will help increase demand and will require extra efforts to recycle.

In developing regions, improving levels of disposable income and consumer spending will support sales of high-drain electronics (such as mobile phones and personal computers), boosting demand replacement batteries. As incomes rise, a shift to better performing primary batteries (including alkaline and lithium types) is also expected to drive market advances in the developing world. Source: The Freedonia Group

In Ireland 200 million portable batteries are powering homes and appliances. This includes 20 million waste batteries or 12 batteries per Irish household at any one time. Source: WEEE Ireland.

Battery Power

Batteries are part of every day life and serve many uses some of which you may not notice Take this UPS unit used in office or business environments. They sit under your desk  or in the server room and help save your most important computer data and customer information during a power outage. This unit and similar units are full of batteries.

 

With batteries everywhere please take care when disposing of yours. You should be complete the activity in accordance with the relevant WEEE legislation and recycled through the large number authorized and dedicated locations across Ireland using proper receptacles including the blue boxes provided by WEEE Ireland.

Remember batteries are safe to touch in general, but caution is needed when touching damaged units and when handling lead acid batteries. Several countries label lead acid as hazardous material, and rightly so. Please have a look at the health and environmental hazards outlined by the EPA 

Recycling Service

Recycle IT offer a battery recycling service for all types and sizes of batteries and we can arrange collection, transportation, storage, everything you need to recycle effectively. Our collection and drop off service is open to homes and organisations including schools, charities and business and we will accept all type of electrical and electronic equipment including batteries.

Recycle IT  are proud to work with WEEE Ireland to accept and recycle batteries in Dublin and the surrounding areas and remember the more batteries recycled the more WEEE Ireland can support the work of  Laura Lynn, Ireland’s Children’s Hospice. 

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT is an award winning not for profit social enterprise providing a collection and drop off service for all types of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). During 2016 Recycle IT offered drop off and collection services to thousands of homes and businesses across Dublin and surrounding areas collecting a range of WEEE which includes thousands of computers, cables, monitors, microwaves and TV’s.

Recycle IT services are provided in partnership with WEEE Ireland. Recycle IT are supported by Pobal, South Dublin County Council and authorized by the National Waste Collection Permit Office and the local authorities across Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.

Please do request more information from Recycle IT about our recycling service on 01 4578321 or email info@recycleit.ie