New !- Battery Recycling in the Ascot Area

Think positive – recycle used batteries! In a bid to boost the recycling rate of spent batteries, the Royal Borough is providing a number of convenient sites for residents to drop off their old household batteries.

New legislation, introduced by the European Parliament on 1 February, means responsibility for the collection of batteries has shifted from local authorities to producers, while retailers who sell more than one pack of batteries a day have to provide collection bins for battery recycling.

From Friday 19 March battery collection sites can be found at, Ascot Durning Library and elsewhere.

In addition, the bins will be found at various department stores and hardware shops. Residents can find their nearest collection point by visiting http://www.batteryback.org/battery-collection.html and entering their postcode.

Despite the change of responsibility, the Royal Borough is proactively supporting the initiative and working with battery compliance scheme BatteryBack to encourage people to recycle batteries from everyday household items such as mobile phones, laptops, hearing aids, watches, cameras, cordless power tools, torches, electric toothbrushes, electric razors and hand-held vacuum cleaners.

Cllr Phill Bicknell, lead member for public protection, said: “In the UK at present only 3% of the current 30,000 tonnes of portable batteries that go onto the market each year are recycled.
“There are real benefits to reducing the amount of batteries going to landfill as they can leak harmful chemicals into the soil. The recycling target is 25% by 2012 with an increase of 5% a year for the following few years so come on, Royal Borough residents, let’s do our bit to help reach this goal.”