Tesco Joins The BatteryBack Recycling Scheme

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.