The Baa-ttery Campaign
We are supporting Cumbria's primary school Baa-ttery recycling campaign
A battery recycling campaign with a difference has been launched in primary schools across Cumbria to encourage more battery recycling, with a sheep as its mascot. A staggering 3.2 million batteries are discarded in Cumbrian waste each year, which is equal to the weight of over 3650 Herdwick sheep!
Batteries should never be disposed of in regular waste or recycling bins. When damaged during the transportation or treatment process, they have the potential to explode or ignite, which can lead to fires and pose serious risks to personal safety.
The baa-ttery campaign seeks to raise awareness of the issue and to promote the recycling of used batteries.
Batteries are commonly found in various household items including toys, phones, electronic equipment and vapes. Renewi, which operates two Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) facilities in Cumbria in partnership with Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness Councils, serves 225,000 households, receiving over 110k tonnes of residual household waste per annum.
It processes and diverts household waste away from landfill and creates material suitable for energy recovery in UK cement kilns for recycling.
Renewi has partnered with Valpak Limited to issue battery boxes to the schools in order to raise awareness of the importance of battery recycling. All pupils will be asked to support the campaign by bringing their used batteries into school. When the battery boxes are full the boxes can be collected, free of charge, by ringing the number on the side of the box. The full box will be collected and a new empty box replacement will be provided
The campaign has been designed to be appealing to children, featuring a sheep as the mascot for the baa-ttery campaign. The ‘baa-ttery boxes’ are available to all businesses and organisations across Cumbria, if you would like to support the campaign you can order a ‘baa-ttery box’ by clicking here. For The Baa-ttery Recycling Competition terms and conditions click here
The Baa-ttery Recycling Competition
To drive awareness and participation, a competition has been launched, encouraging children to “herd” their used batteries into Cumbrian schools. Six exciting prizes are up for grabs, including two £300 book tokens, two £200 book tokens, and two £100 book tokens, generously donated by Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness Councils. Schools in both council areas will compete for the top three spots, with the deadline to collect the most batteries set for Christmas (terms and conditions apply).
When batteries are collected, they are first sorted into different types of batteries such as alkaline, lithium, mercury and zinc amongst others. The separate types are recycled to extract the different materials and precious metals, which are then used to make new products, including new batteries. “The collection and recycling of batteries is important, as some of the materials within batteries are hazardous and can become a fire risk when not disposed of correctly. Valpak has supported the responsible management of waste batteries for a number of years through our free battery collection service, so it makes sense for us to partner with Renewi in Cumbria for this campaign.
James Armitage, Head of Procurement at Valpak
