Action Briefing Feb 2006 - Mar 2006
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Birmingham's Battery Amnesty

Guest Article: A 'Battery Amnesty' is now underway at twelve sites in Birmingham; local charity Groundwork Birmingham & Solihull is collecting used household batteries for recycling at ten local schools.

Funded by the Environment Agency, the 'Battery Amnesty' recycling project will run until 31st March 2006. A West Midlands company, G&P Batteries Ltd., based in Darlaston, collecting the batteries for recycling. If the project is successful then it will be introduced into the 360 Schools across Birmingham in 2006 and 2007.

Birmingham produces more than fifteen million waste batteries each year, some batteries contain harmful substances including lead; mercury and cadmium, which can cause environmental harm and have been linked to kidney and liver damage in humans. Recycling them makes good environmental sense by taking them out of the environment. We hope that by supporting schemes like this we will encourage people to help us create a better place for future generations.

By encouraging school children to bring in any used, redundant batteries from home you will be helping recycle these materials rather than throwing them in the bin, which can pollute the environment. Groundwork will also be doing education work in these schools on recycling issues. A prize of a free magic show will also be awarded to the school which collects the most batteries.

Groundwork Birmingham & Solihull is part of a nationwide federation of Groundwork charities and has been facilitating environmental initiatives in the Birmingham area for the past decade. The charity channels its focus to concentrate on Land, Community, Youth, Education, Employment and Business issues working with local people and businesses to improve the quality of their environment through environmental action. The charity operates out of several offices in Birmingham, and recently expanded its activities into North Solihull.

For more information visit www.groundwork-birmingham.org.uk. Alternatively, call me on 0121 356 2916, or email at steven.dewar@groundwork.org.uk.

Steve Dewar,
Programme Manager (Environmental Enterprises), Groundwork Birmingham & Solihull