The AA battery mountain

[purpletigron]

Are 'normal' (alkaline, AA and similar) batteries being recycled in the UK at the moment?

My local council advertises 'battery recycling' but investigation suggest that they mean lead-acid vehicle batteries.

Edit: I found a local 'recycling centre' (funny, used to be 'the tip') Web page, which darkly hinted that 'special instructions' would be given for dry-cell household batteries. I rang the number given, and got a slightly grumpy sounding bloke who said, "Just bring 'em in, luv.". Hmm... why the mystery? Ah, well.

Comments

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

My council collects dry-cell batteries, but only if you take them to the dump, and they don't make a song and dance about it.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Hmmm! Usually a long way on a bicycle, in my experience, but useful to know and investigate locally to me. Thanks!

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Does your council have a website?

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

A very unhelpful one. I'm going to have to ring them (they are only so-so about answering email)...

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, I wonder who they get to put these websites together. Hope the phone call works.

[miramon.livejournal.com]

Well, in the council I've been working at for the last two years(http://www.westberks.gov.uk), it's something of a collaborative effort. ICT, that's the IT department, run the website and provide a mechanism for all the various departments to update their specific bits. There are loads of departments in your average council, some of them care about their webpages, some of them couldn't be bothered. ICT aren't allowed to make value judgements, prod people or do anything other than resize multi-megabyte graphics. There are currently no enforced usability or content standards for websites (not until next year), but SOCITM (Society of IT Management) do an annual survey and publish the results. It costs £150 (or you can join SOCITM and get it for less). Nobody evaluates websites on how easy it is to find information on recycling batteries, they're too concerned about meeting the government's latest set of "guidelines" which tend to have other priorities (search Google for "ODPM priority outcomes").

I'd try http://www.envirogreen.co.uk or pass their details on to your local council.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Most of my interaction with local councils has demonstrated a left-hand-doesn't-know-what-right-hand's-doing attitude. I've found that there were people who really were helpful and kind and wanted to do their best, but mostly I found it really frustrating as a member of the public dealing with local councils. I always remember trying to get the money back from my bank account when the poll tax came in and I was under 20 and in full time education. Phone call after phone call after appointment where I wasn't met after form filled out after phone call after letters... One great example was my sister, who couldn't get unemployment benefit because she was going to live with her boyfriend, whose income was being counted as hers even though they were over 100 miles away from one another; then, when she began living with him and had to leave a job because he was being deployed to another base, she couldn't get benefit because she wasn't married to him so he didn't count as her partner, and so leaving her job because he was deployed elsewhere didn't count as a reason for leaving employment... I know it must be difficult to have all these different departments dealing with so many things, but it's so annoying when you're on the recieving end. Actually, it must be bloody frustrating for people trying to work in local government, too.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Waltham Forest council includes household batteries in doorstep recycling. We tie them in a bag and add them to the box.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Luxury! (Good for them...)