EU Proposing Mandatory Battery Recycling

Ironsides writes "The BBC Reports that the European Union is working on a directive to mandate battery recycling. Among other things, it will ban more than trace amounts of cadmium and mercury and require all batteries to be removeable. If it passes, it will be interesting to see how this affects such devices as MP3 players that generally do not have removeable rechargeable batteries."

Comments

Very brave

[MightyYar]

How very bold of the politicians to remove mercury from batteries now that the packaging on most batteries advertises "Mercury Free!". And getting rid of cadmium is a risky political move now that every device worth it's salt uses Lithium-Ion technology! Bold, bold moves from truly noble men and women.

Convenience

[Tablizer]

If there was a convenient way to dispose of "technological waste" such as batteries and computers, then most would not mind.

However, if you have to call around to chase a moving target to turn risky garbage in, most will just dump it in the regular garbage.

The trash pickup company could have a policy whereby tech waste is put in say blue bags by the side of the curb with the rest of the trash one day of the month. A small tax on semi-hazardous tech devices could pay for it. Or perhaps regular bags with a pre-determined message/sign taped to it.

Re:Unintended consequences

[evilviper]

After this, people will chuck their cell phones into the nearest river, even more directly polluting the environment they tried to protect.

Now WHY would someone do that? Out of spite for the new law? No, I think not.

This requires shops to collect used batteries at NO COST, so I can't see any reason someone would do something as insane as going out of their way to toss it into a river.