Sainsbury’s starts bulb and battery collections
November 5, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Sainsbury’s has announced that it will become the first supermarket in the country to start recycling old batteries and energy-saving light bulbs at its stores, in a move that will be welcomed by green campaigners.
Sainsbury’s will team up with Recolight, a specialist light-bulb recycler that already collects bulbs from businesses across the country. The battery recycling will be dealt with by Valpak.
The move is well timed. Energy-efficient light bulbs are set to replace traditional bulbs by the end of 2012. They save a lot more energy and last longer, but disposing of them has been highlighted as a potential problem because of the mercury they contain.
The person in charge of environmental affairs at Sainsbury’s, Jack Cunningham, said that Sainsbury’s is “delighted to be the first national UK retailers to launch a co-collection scheme for both waste streams”. He also said that combining the collections into one would help to save on carbon emissions.
The scheme will initially be launched in five stores this December, but by the end of 2010 the collections should have been unrolled to a further 200 stores across the country. Both bulbs and batteries will be collected in specially designed containers with one flap for each.
The CEO of Recolight, Nigel Harvey, said that the new partnership is very exciting for the company. He also said that they are "committed to go beyond the legal minimums of the waste electrical and electronic regulations.”
The scheme will help a lot more people to recycle their old bulbs with ease as they become more common in homes across the country.
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