Published on Friday9thSeptember2016

Minister Naughten calls on public to recycle batteries

20160909Naughten Batteries

Pictured are Lilly Mitchell, Alex Brennan, Leo Donovan, WEEE Ireland CEO, Grace Haverty, Micheal Hanlon,  Minister Denis Naughton and Emma Glynn

Environment Minister Denis Naughten has called on the public to keep up their recycling efforts ahead of an EU deadline at the end of this year requiring 45% of all batteries sold in Ireland to be recycled.

He made the call at the launch of European Battery Recycling Day in association with recycling scheme WEEE Ireland at Lawrencetown National School, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway.

Students at Lawrencetown National School collected almost 100kg of batteries over the past year as part of the WEEE Pledge Programme - a free recycling and educational programme designed for schools.

Minister Naughten stated:

2 out of 3 people in Ireland still do not recycle their small waste batteries and that is something I really want to see change.  We have only a few months left to reach our EU target so I am asking people to make a big effort to look around their homes, schools and offices for any portable batteries that need to be recycled.  We can all start to make changes to what we recycle so let us start today on European Battery Recycling Day. I want to congratulate the schools that took part in the WEEE Pledge Programme last year and I encourage more and more schools to take part in the programme in order to make a real difference environmentally and in doing so help raise vital funds for charity.

Last year 5,000 students in more than 2,000 primary and secondary schools took part in the WEEE Pledge programme.