Rangitīkei District Council's solid waste management specialist Raj Khadka encourages residents to bring batteries to drop-off points around the district. Photo / Bevan Conley
Rangitīkei District Council's solid waste management specialist Raj Khadka encourages residents to bring batteries to drop-off points around the district. Photo / Bevan Conley
Rangitīkei District Council has come up with a novel approach to recycling disposable power units, and residents in the district are encouraged to send them to “battery heaven”.
The campaign encourages the safe disposal of batteries, with collection buckets placed at transfer stations and libraries around the district.
The council’ssolid waste management specialist Raj Khadka said there was a growing awareness of the fire risk involved in disposing of batteries with general household rubbish.
The campaign was intended to inject some humour into risk minimisation.
“There has been a lot of publicity about the fire risks involved with battery disposal, and this is a way to encourage safe recycling in a light-hearted way,” he said.
“We are asking people to put tape on the batteries before they put them in the special bins, because used batteries can still hold a slight charge that can cause sparks.”
The campaign message contains a ‘eulogy’ for the deceased batteries.
“Most people give them a literal rubbish funeral, but that is super-dangerous. They can explode and lead to fires, or the chemicals and fluids can cause environmental damage, so we’ve set up ‘battery heaven’ collection buckets at all of our waste transfer stations and libraries.”
Batteries can be dropped off at the Taihape and Marton libraries and at Bulls Whare Ako - Learning Hub. There are also collection bins at the transfer stations in Bulls, Hunterville, Mangaweka, Marton, Rātana and Taihape.
The council has partnered with electronic waste recycling company E-Cycle Ltd, which provides a nationwide collection service.
E-Cycle director Jon Thornhill said the company has partnered with councils around the country, as well as some corporate clients, to minimise the potential hazards of battery disposal.
Thornhill said he was aware there are a few small-scale electronic recycling operators in different parts of New Zealand.
“Everything I know, I have learned on visits to Australia, where people have been doing this work for longer, and on a much larger scale, of course.
“We have developed safety procedures that include working away from direct sunlight, wearing goggles and gloves, and clothing made from flame-retardant materials.”
Thornhill founded the company nine years ago, and there are now bases in Auckland and Christchurch where batteries and electronic devices are broken down into components that are sent to Australia, South Korea and Japan, where they are repurposed.
“Those countries have big plants where the components are used in the [manufacturing] of new products,” he said.
“We don’t have anything like that here yet, but it’s to be hoped that the time will come and we will be able to distribute the components to locally based companies.”
Thornhill said the e-waste industry is not yet regulated in New Zealand, and he hopes the Government will follow the lead of other countries to introduce product stewardship.
“E-Cycle complies with the Basel and Stockholm Conventions, which regulate the export of hazardous waste,” he said.
“We only work with responsible downstream recyclers.”
The Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre has a bin for alkaline and rechargeable battery recycling.
Photo / Bevan Conley
The Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre in Maria Pl accepts domestic batteries, both alkaline and rechargeable, and car batteries for recycling, but they currently don’t accept lithium-ion batteries.
“There is too much risk, because the lithium batteries are susceptible to moisture and there’s a lot of vigilance needed with storage and transport,” said manager Dale Cobb.
“We have looked into it, but we’re not equipped to manage the risks involved at this stage.”
The centre is accessible to residents so they can drop off recycling at any time, and Cobb said things were generally running well, although the staff often had to remove items that were not recyclable or had been placed in the wrong bins.
The battery recycling was going well and the bins were regularly collected by waste management company Interwaste.
Liz Wylie is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. She joined the editorial team in 2014 and regularly covers stories from Whanganui and the wider region. She also writes features and profile stories.
