This Saturday 18th March is Global Recycling Day. A valuable reminder in our calendars that many resources on this planet are finite, and we are heading towards running out of raw materials, while our waste piles up even in the most pristine corners of the world.
Batteries are one of the trickiest household items to recycle as they are tiny, easily get lost in cupboards and drawers, and they often cannot be placed in our regular recycling bins. To send the batteries for their next journey, they should be brough to a specific battery recycling point in shops and supermarkets. It is crucial that old batteries are recycled rather than thrown away with household waste, because they contain toxic chemicals and metals, such as lead, mercury, zinc and lithium, which can pollute and harm the environment. These elements can be extracted from old batteries and reused, granting a new life to these materials which closes the cycle and prevents more virgin materials from getting mined.
An excellent way to discuss this with your class could be to participate in the Big Battery Hunt, a nation-wide programme helping young people to learn about this issue. You can register to gain access to free resources, and evoke the competitive streak in your pupils by counting how many batteries had been collected. To help the pupils identify their local recycling points, please click here. You can make your effort go even further by recycling batteries at Cancer Research UK shops, which allows the charity to receive donations when the batteries are collected. This way, everyone wins!