Miss-Delectable
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Deaf children aid battery recycling (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
Deaf schoolchildren are supporting Bradford Council after it became one of the first local authorities in the country to trial a new system to recycle old batteries.
The authority has joined a consortium of battery manufacturers and importers, major retailers and other stakeholders to take part in the UK’s only free national recovery scheme for all types of batteries, called Battery Back.
Special bins have been placed at Council buildings and recycling centres.
Pupils at a unit for children with audio impairments based at Girlington Primary School have now backed the scheme by donating about 5,000 dead batteries once used to power hearing aids.
Nursery nurse Michelle Sanderson said: “We heard about the battery project through the Telegraph & Argus. We have been collecting batteries for a number of years and have not known what to do with them.
“We must have about 5,000 as we must use about 100 each week so it is very important for our children.”
Girlington provides specialist provision for 29 primary age children with hearing impairments. Pupils are educated in their own unit but also mix with mainstream peers.
Eleven-year-old Mohammed Suffiyan said he wanted to help improve the district’s recycling record.
“We want to collect as many batteries as possible and will collect more to help recycling,” he said. “You can then change them and make them into something new.”
Council leader Councillor Kris Hopkins met the Girlington Primary pupils to thank them for donating their battery haul. He said: “Young people are now taking responsibility for their own environment.
“Recycling is now part of life and it is important that children understand that. But this is just the start, we hope to expand upon schemes like this.”
The scheme will combine the collection of batteries with other hazardous waste so that they can be collected in a cost-effective way.
The initiative comes with the introduction of a European Directive stipulating that 25 per cent of all portable batteries must be recycled by 2012, rising to 45 per cent by 2016.
New battery recycling regulations are expected to be introduced soon to meet these targets.
Currently the UK recycles less than three per cent of portable batteries, with more than 30,000 tonnes of batteries being discarded every year.
A Bradford Council spokesman said it was too early to say how many batteries had been collected since the launch of the campaign earlier this month but added the scheme had got off to a good start.
The project is being run by WeeeCare Plc, which manages the UK’s largest compliance scheme for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) which will supply specially-designed canisters made from recycled plastics.
Deaf schoolchildren are supporting Bradford Council after it became one of the first local authorities in the country to trial a new system to recycle old batteries.
The authority has joined a consortium of battery manufacturers and importers, major retailers and other stakeholders to take part in the UK’s only free national recovery scheme for all types of batteries, called Battery Back.
Special bins have been placed at Council buildings and recycling centres.
Pupils at a unit for children with audio impairments based at Girlington Primary School have now backed the scheme by donating about 5,000 dead batteries once used to power hearing aids.
Nursery nurse Michelle Sanderson said: “We heard about the battery project through the Telegraph & Argus. We have been collecting batteries for a number of years and have not known what to do with them.
“We must have about 5,000 as we must use about 100 each week so it is very important for our children.”
Girlington provides specialist provision for 29 primary age children with hearing impairments. Pupils are educated in their own unit but also mix with mainstream peers.
Eleven-year-old Mohammed Suffiyan said he wanted to help improve the district’s recycling record.
“We want to collect as many batteries as possible and will collect more to help recycling,” he said. “You can then change them and make them into something new.”
Council leader Councillor Kris Hopkins met the Girlington Primary pupils to thank them for donating their battery haul. He said: “Young people are now taking responsibility for their own environment.
“Recycling is now part of life and it is important that children understand that. But this is just the start, we hope to expand upon schemes like this.”
The scheme will combine the collection of batteries with other hazardous waste so that they can be collected in a cost-effective way.
The initiative comes with the introduction of a European Directive stipulating that 25 per cent of all portable batteries must be recycled by 2012, rising to 45 per cent by 2016.
New battery recycling regulations are expected to be introduced soon to meet these targets.
Currently the UK recycles less than three per cent of portable batteries, with more than 30,000 tonnes of batteries being discarded every year.
A Bradford Council spokesman said it was too early to say how many batteries had been collected since the launch of the campaign earlier this month but added the scheme had got off to a good start.
The project is being run by WeeeCare Plc, which manages the UK’s largest compliance scheme for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) which will supply specially-designed canisters made from recycled plastics.