Ford dealerships in the United Kingdom have started a initiative to recycle old and damaged bumpers from their cars and so far this recycling scheme has already been very successful.

Ford dealers were able to keep over twenty three thousand accident damaged bumpers from entering landfills in last year alone. This is equal to about seventy tonnes of landfill waste diverted by this recycling scheme. The bumpers are going to be recycled into new, usable bumpers as well as other plastic parts and goods.

Ford has called their UK recycling scheme a fantastic success and say it shows that Ford is focused upon environmental concerns. Ford dealerships are also saving cash with the scheme as now the Ford company will remove bumpers from their dealers free of charge.

Retailers in the UK will have to provide recycling points in order that consumers can bring back old batteries. Which in the long run is expected to lead to a increase in the retail price of batteries or a loss in profits – expect the former to occur.

The scheme is introduced to ensure that Britain can meet EU targets to recycle 10 per cent of all batteries by the end of the year. However right now Britons recycle just 3% of the 600 million batteries used yearly.

In the event the UK fails to meet the target, the Government could face a fine of millions of pounds.

Vince Armitage, divisional vice president at Varta Consumer Batteries UK, said the fine will be passed onto manufacturers and could ultimately push up the price of batteries.

“Consumers will have to drive the recycling effort by taking their old batteries to dedicated collection points in retail outlets or municipal sites,” he went on to say that. “Not only is this problematic in itself, if householders don’t even know about the directive and the responsibility they have acquired overnight, then the whole recycling effort will fall down from the outset.”

The battery recycling scheme is anticipated to cost manufacturers around £3 million per annum as they are expected to collect and dispose of batteries – this could lead to a increase in the retail price of batteries.

O2 have joined the recycling game by setting up a all new website where you can sell and recycle your old gadgets for cash. At O2 Recycle, you can find out what they will be willing to pay your old mobile phone, sat nav, mp3 player, digital camera or handheld game console. If you like what they have to offer, you can register and send your items off and O2 Recycle will pay the money into your bank account. Don’t worry if your mobile phones are set on another network – O2 Recycle accept mobile from all network providers and you don’t have to be a O2 customer.

Supermarket giants Tesco has just announced that it has joined the BatteryBack recycling scheme. Tesco will place battery recycling points in all Tesco stores nationwide to allow their customers to dispose of their old batteries in a way that is safe to the environment.

Purchasing Manager of Tesco, Huw Clifford said “We believe major retails will be key in helping Britain hit battery recycling targets.” Currently only 3% of batteries are recycled in this country but to meet the European targets this must rise to 25% by 2012.

BatteryBack was initially created in the summer of 2008 in preparation for the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations. The regulations are a response to a European Directive that states that 25 per cent of all batteries placed on the market must be recycled by 2012, rising to 45 per cent by 2016. Currently, the UK recycles less than 3 per cent of portable batteries, with more than 30,000 tonnes of batteries being discarded every year.

BatteryBack provide BatteryCans for local authority civic amenity sites, schools, supermarkets and other retailers. They have over 2000 battery collection points, a figure that is growing daily. We aim to have 30,000 sites by the end of 2010 and well over 60,000 by the end of 2012.