School children over the UK are now being persuaded to recycle batteries following the introduction of a fresh advertising campaign by the European Recycling Platform (ERP).

The advertising campaign comprises of a short video narrated by a 12-year-old boy from Cornwall, demonstrating a battery travelling from his house to school and then to a recycling centre.

The goal is to encourage children to assist meet recycling targets. The UK is legally required to recycle 25 % of its batteries by 2012, and 45 per cent by 2016. In 2009 only about 2 per cent of waste batteries were recycled. On the other hand, since January 2010 battery producers have been legally required to fund the collection, treatment and recycling of batteries.

47,000 tonnes of batteries are applied in the UK each and every year, but the majority is thrown in receptacles and end up in landfill. Some batteries contain hazardous elements for instance lead, mercury and zinc. It could be damaging to the surroundings to send these to landfill, since the heavy metals may well flow into the soil once the battery casing corrodes.

Numerous of the items we use each and every day are run on batteries, including mobiles, laptops and torches. Recycling batteries is excellent for the environment as it shows that the metals within the batteries can be used again. This reduces the need for raw materials and avoids environmental damage from them in landfill. It is possible to also reduce disposable battery use by making use of rechargeable batteries.

UK schools can ask for no cost battery collection boxes from ERP, to be collected for totally free when they’re full. To locate out additional, visit the ERP internet site. Other compliance schemes may also offer a similar service.

Developers have revealed plans to create a habitable island from 44,000 tonnes of waste that is currently floating in the Pacific Ocean.

It’s believed ‘Recycled Island’ may home up to 500,000 individuals and will be manufactured by trying to recycle plastics from the North Pacific Gyre in to connected hollow blocks.

The Dutch team state the island could produce power making use of solar energy as well as wave energy could additionally help clear the seas of plastic material pollution.

Diverse areas of the 3,861 square mile island could have chose jobs such as housing, harvesting, as well as tourism… as this seems like the ideal holiday getaway, huh?

A spokesperson for WHIM architecture, the company behind the audacious project, said: “We have three main aims; Cleaning our oceans from a gigantic amount of plastic waste; Creating new land; And constructing a sustainable habitat.

“Recycled island seeks the possibilities to recycle the plastic waste on the spot and to recycle it into a floating entity.

“The constructive and marine technical aspects take part in the project of creating a sea worthy island.”

For more information on this project, pay a visit to recycled island.

Well done to the people of Oxfordshire. It has been announced that residents in North Oxfordshire are recycling more than 50 per cent of their rubbish.

Figures belonging to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs show that folks living in Cherwell have raised their recycling from 49.5 per cent to 51.3 per cent since last August.

Two brand new initiatives by Cherwell District Council – a food waste scheme and pink bins for smaller electrical items – are thanked for the rise.

Predictions show that over the next year recycling might possibly climb to 59 per cent.

George Reynolds, Cherwell’s executive member for environment, health and recreation, said: “This is a credit to all the residents who put so much effort into recycling.

“When we first started down this road we had no idea how successful our initiatives would become.

“With our various household recycling schemes and the banks for glass, clothes, batteries and small electrical items, we are now able to avoid almost anything going to landfill.”

New research study, done by ABTA and the Travel Foundation, found out that many Brits totally neglect to recycle while on holiday.

Almost 90 per cent of men and women polled revealed that despite regularly recycling cans, bottles as well as paper at home, fewer than half of these also recycle whilst overseas. One in every five travellers said that while on break they do not even think about the environment. The findings are part of a bigger campaign to ‘make holidays greener’ during an awareness week from 26 June to 3 July.

This national campaign, being managed by way of the Travel Foundation, is going to urge people to be more thoughtful of the environment on holiday in the same way they may be in the home. The campaign is also sponsored by ABTA, Thomson, Thomas Cook, Teletext Holidays, Holiday Extras, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Atlantic and First Choice.

Ideas such as taking short showers, shopping in local marketplaces, and not having towels washed every single day will be promoted to tourists on holiday. Head of Destinations & Sustainability at ABTA, Nikki White said that in the home a lot of people automatically have instituted these routines because doing so costs them money, on the other hand she said when individuals are on holiday it is just as easy to lessen carbon footprints.

This market research indicated that people were still puzzled about what was meant by ‘green’ or ’sustainable’ travel. Furthermore, a third of participants said the hotels as well as accommodation failed to provide satisfactory information about the facilities or how to protect the environment while using them.