Three years ago, in April 2009, WasteServ in conjunction with FIMBANK plc. launched its first Battery Buster campaign in all schools. The idea behind this competition was to raise awareness in young people and the public at large about the harmful effects that the inappropriate disposal of batteries leaves on our environment. Few people at the time realised that batteries contain harmful chemicals including metals like iron, nickel, cadmium, lithium and zinc and are therefore considered as hazardous waste. Any leakage of their contents into the environment, especially if they leach down to the water table, becomes therefore a serious form of pollution.

The European Union had long realised the need to regularise the proper disposal of batteries and accumulators. The Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators and repealing Directive 91/157/EEC that entered into force on 26 September 2006 gave member states until 26 September 2008 to transpose the relevant EU legislation into national law in as far as management of waste batteries and accumulators are concerned. Some of its features need to be particularly highlighted:

1. ‘Disposal of industrial and automotive batteries and accumulators in landfill sites or by incineration should be prohibited’. (preamble point 8)

2. Article 7 states that ‘member states shall, having regard to the environmental impact of transport, take necessary measures to maximise the separate collection of waste batteries and accumulators and to minimise the disposal of batteries and accumulators as mixed municipal waste in order to achieve a high level of recycling for all waste batteries and accumulators.’

3. Article 10 specifies waste battery and accumulator collection targets with minimum targets of 25% of battery and accumulator sales to be collected by September 2012 increasing to 45% of battery sales by September 2016. (Annual collection and sales figures shall include batteries and accumulators incorporated into appliances).

A simple competition was organised. Students were asked to return used batteries in a bag marked with their personal details. The bags were then used in a lottery and the students drawn from this lottery were awarded various attractive prizes. The total amount of batteries collected in the 2009 campaign amounted to 5200 kilograms (as compared to an average of 780 kilograms of batteries collected per month between January and April of that year from the general public). When one takes into account that on average an AA battery weighs about 25gms, the total number of batteries collected ran into hundreds of thousands.

The following year, the competition was repeated, once again sponsored by FIMBANK plc., and again with the active involvement of FIMBANK employees. This time round there was an additional prize of Є2000 to be awarded to the school with the highest collection rate per capita. The money was being granted on condition that such funds were to be used in developing renewable forms of energy for the school or to improve sports facilities or other educational facilities. The winning school was St Patrick’s Boys’ school, topping the charts with a collection of 2.8 kilograms batteries per capita. The total amount collected in this edition of the Battery Buster Competition was 8,940 kilograms.

The competition was again held this year between March and June. WasteServ had at this time sought new partners and it welcomed a new sponsor, namely V.J.Salamone Marketing Ltd., importers of DURACELL batteries. V.J.Salamone Marketing Ltd. sponsored all of the prizes for the winning students. The total amount of batteries collected was 7550 kilograms while the winning school was Xewkija Primary who more than doubled their collection rate with respect to the previous year to collect 3.481kilograms of batteries per capita.

The school Battery Buster Campaign was primarily intended to sensitise students about this type of waste which is often ignored as being hazardous and dumped along with municipal waste. There were two main objectives in this type of campaign: the first objective was to educate and inform the younger generation about the proper disposal of such waste in the hope that future adult generations of citizens would become fully aware of this responsibility to their environment. The second objective was to convey the message to the older and not so old generations by having young students act as ambassadors in carrying this message home. Indeed, the high collection rates obtained by a number of individual students were achieved after actively going on a hunt for spent batteries, not only from relatives and friends but also from entire neighbourhoods.

One may very well ask if the competition has effectively reached the objectives it was meant to reach. Although it is difficult to quantify the effect such a competition may have had on the students, it is opportune to point out the following facts and observations. The adjoining table shows the total amount of batteries returned to WasteServ in a year by the Maltese population and the relative contribution to this collection by the Battery Buster campaign, while chart1 shows a graphical representation of this data.

It is clearly evident that the campaign has played an important role and has made a significant contribution to the global collection at a national level.

An unapparent but very interesting statistic that emerges from the analysis relates to the type of batteries collected in the campaigns of 2010 and 2011. Of the 8,940 kilograms collected in 2010 only 35 kilograms were attributable to rechargeable batteries.

In 2011, 260 kilograms of rechargeable batteries were collected from the total of 7,550 kilograms, (refer to chart 2). If one makes a conservative estimate and assumes that rechargeable batteries are used six times over before being discarded then the difference in the totals for the two years can easily be accounted for.

This is a very encouraging trend and one that we need to emphasise and promote. If a rechargeable battery lasts at least six times longer than an ordinary battery, this would effectively mean that we would be disposing of around 80% less of this type of hazardous waste.

The analysis conducted by WasteServ on the data collected has yielded another interesting trend. The collections were categorised as coming from primary, secondary schools, post secondary institutions and from schools having both primary and secondary level. Throughout the three years of the campaign, there was a clear correlation between the age of the students and the rate of collection. Primary school children had the highest collection rates with, by far, the smallest being by post-secondary students. Chart 3 shows the relative percentages of batteries returned for the year 2011, by students from these different school categories. There may be various reasons underlying this trend, yet it emerges clear that our youngest ones continue to demonstrate themselves to be ever more ready to contribute to our environment.

Chart 3 shows the relative amounts of batteries collected by different schools in 2011

Certainly, young children use many batteries in their various battery operated toys but it is also possible that it is easier to engage them in a competition of this sort. The fact that they spend a great deal of time with the same educator helps to emphasise the need to participate in such an initiative. Older students have their own ‘toys’ such as iPods, mobile phones, Iphones and laptops, all of which use rechargeable batteries. Our general feedback is that young children were very enthusiastic about this collection badgering one and all for spent batteries. It is hoped that the low rate of battery return by the more adult student population is not symptomatic of an indifference to their environmental responsibilities.

If the young student population carries the lesson about proper battery disposal with them into the future, then the campaign would have reached its aim. Indeed, we believe that thanks to our two commendable sponsors; FIMBANK and V.J.Salamone Marketing Ltd, importers of DURACELL, our message has reached the younger generation. Now it is up to the Educators in the field to go on where we have left off.

The Battery Collection boxes have been left in the schools for the convenient use of students and staff. The general public may find similar boxes in various supermarkets. Used batteries can also be returned to some commercial outlets and to all the Civic Amenity sites located at Maghtab, Luqa, Mriehel, Hal-Far and Tal-Kus, Gozo. For more details consult our website http://www.wasteservmalta.com/facilities.aspx?id=122

Article provided by WasteServ