B-cycle, Australia’s first ever national battery recycling scheme, has launched today.
“It’s been a long time coming,” B-cycle boss Libby Chaplin tells the ABC.
“It’s going to have a far-reaching impact on the waste stream and innovation in this space.
“About 50 per cent of people actually currently put their batteries in the general waste or recycling bin, and this causes some serious problems because, even though they’re dead to us, batteries still maintain some charge. They can spark with other bits of metal and cause fires.”
Initially, the scheme only covers smaller alkaline and lithium batteries (your AA batteries and the like). Thousands of Officeworks, Coles, Woolworths, Bunnings, and ALDI stores will have battery collection bins.
B-cycle said that Australians buy enough batteries each year to circle the planet 2.3 times, and 150 million batteries are currently in homes across the country.