Thursday 27 December 2007

"In the UK, around 660 million batteries are bought each year and 95% of these are disposable-cumulatively that's an enormous amount of batteries heading straight to landfill, releasing damaging chemicals into the environment. It's wasteful and unnecessary," said Colin Butfield, Head of Campaigns at WWF-UK.

The average household uses approximately 21 batteries a year on average and most are thrown away in the bin, according to the research.

"The average person in the UK is living as though we have three planets worth of resources at our disposal, which is totally unsustainable. Rechargeable batteries are an easy environmental win - they have 28 times less potential impact on climate change than disposable batteries and while using them they will not reduce your standard of living and they will reduce your impact on the planet," explained Butfield.

In 2007, 90% of all household batteries ended up in landfill in the UK alone.

Uniross is the co-founder of the European association, Recharge. Recharge promotes the use of rechargeable batteries and an increase in collection rates.

WWF and Uniross have been partners since May 2006.