Member Article

REPIC UNVEILS BATTERY ANIMATION AFTER SURVEY REVEALS THERE ARE 190 MILLION USED BATTERIES IN UK HOMES

The video animation aims to boost awareness around battery recycling in the run up to Christmas

REPIC has teamed up with primary school children to launch a fun and engaging animation to drive home the importance of disposing of used batteries responsibly.

The not-for-profit Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) producer compliance scheme produced the animation with help from 30 Year six children at Lowercroft Primary School in Bury, Manchester.

Uncovering a need for better education around battery recycling in the UK, REPIC’s survey of over 1,000 UK households found that 42% of respondents admitted they do not recycle their old batteries. 38% of these claimed they didn’t know where to recycle them, 24% said they didn’t know you could recycle them and 21% didn’t know they should recycle them.

REPIC’s animation, which will be hosted on www.responsible-recycling.co.uk aims to change this by educating children and their families on the importance - and best practice - of battery recycling.

REPIC’s collaborations with the Year Six Class at Lowercroft Primary School saw the pupils draw upon their imagination and storytelling skills to create an animated video that would appeal to a family audience.

The children illustrated the recycling process, drawing futuristic robot designs to show what goes on inside a battery recycling plant. Their hand-drawn designs were then expertly brought to life in a two-minute video created by North West animation company, Kilogramme. A number of pupils were also invited to narrate the animation.

The animation is being launched by REPIC on its Responsible Recycling website (www.responsible-recycling.co.uk) and will also be pushed out on Twitter (@REPIC_UK) in the run up to Christmas – a time when many people will be looking to throw out old toys, gadgets and batteries in anticipation for the new ones.

REPIC hopes the video will be shared widely across social media to help generate awareness throughout the UK and educate people about the importance of battery recycling.

Mark Burrows-Smith, CEO of REPIC says, “The figures from the national survey suggest up to 35% of people in the UK are still putting their old batteries in general rubbish bins, which will be sent straight to landfill sites. The data also showed that people keep an average of 7.6 old batteries in their homes, garages and sheds, which means that an alarming average of 190 million spent (old) and unused batteries could be lying in homes across the UK.”

“We’d like to thank the pupils at Lowercroft Primary School for helping us to create the video, which we hope will encourage more people to change old habits and start thinking more about battery recycling - not just for Christmas, but all year round.”

Successfully financing the collection, treatment and recycling of around half of the UK’s used electrical items, REPIC is a major force behind recycling WEEE – one of the fastest growing waste streams in the UK. To find your nearest battery recycling centre, visit www.responsible-recycling.co.uk/our-guide-to-battery-recycling/.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hattrick .