Christ College Brecon – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Battery Collection

12 Jun 2019

With over 12,000 school pupils across Powys (including Christ College) taking part in the recent Powys schools battery recycling competition, 3.32 tonnes (3,321.92 kg) of batteries were collected for recycling.

This works out at around 132,000 individual batteries (standard AA Battery = 25 g) (approx. one for every person in Powys) (if you lined them all end to end they would stretch almost 7 kilometres!)

These were sent to G&P Batteries in the West Midlands for recycling where they are separated by chemistry into different metal types for remelting.

Each year the UK gets through 40 million tonnes of portable batteries. Only 45% of this is recycled, which means around 22 million tonnes of batteries are either sitting in our homes or have been dumped into holes in the ground or burnt.

Heavy metals like lead, mercury, cadmium, zinc, manganese and lithium can be hazardous if not disposed of properly, millions of batteries every year end up in landfill, with the potential to leach into the ground and water supplies if not carefully managed.

We were so impressed with the enthusiasm from the Christ College community, that we have decided to keep a battery box behind reception and so we will continue to collect used batteries.

All Houses have been notified, so please support us in helping the environment to be a cleaner place.