Environment NSW versus Common Sense

As everyone does at some point, I have some chemical waste of which to dispose (batteries and fluoro lightbulbs). Being a good little greenie, I asked the New South Wales Environment Department what the recommended procedure is:

Dear Environment NSW,

I have a handful of old batteries and the odd fluorescent lightbulb of which I wish to dispose. Would you please inform me how I can best go about this?

I live in Surry Hills and work in Randwick.

Regards,
Martin Jones

Hi Martin

You can take it to the Household Chemical Cleanout (HCC) and the two remaining locations/dates for this half of the year are listed in the attachment – one at Meadowbank and one at Mt Ku-ring-gai. If these are not suitable there will be another round in the second half of the year but we will not have that information till June. You can either give us a call on 131 555 or check the link again:

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/households/CleanoutGuide.htm

Regards

B.

Information Centre

Office of Environment and Heritage

T: 1300 361 967  F: 9995 5911

info@environment.nsw.gov.au

Hello B.,

Thanks for the response.

Is the only option to safely dispose of batteries and lightbulbs really to travel 20km (or more) on a specific day? That’s ridiculous! I mean, I’m 10 minutes from the city – are there no permanent drop-off points anywhere in the CBD or eastern suburbs?

Regards,
Martin Jones

Hi Martin

I understand that IKEA accept both batteries & compact fluro tubes for recycling. The bins are located near the exits at all their stores. This is a service for customers who have purchased those products from Ikea but they accept products purchased elsewhere too - as so far they’re not overwhelmed by excessive volumes. It would be best to give them a call first to see if they are still doing this.

Participating Battery World stores will also collect rechargeable batteries. To find out if Battery World near you is collecting batteries, call 13 17 60 or visit www.batteryworld.com.au.

B.

There you have it – I can travel several suburbs on a particular day, rely on the goodwill of retailers, or throw the damn things in the bin. “97% of batteries end up in general waste”, laments the Environment NSW website. No bloody wonder!

Update on Saturday, May 28, 2011 at 21:17 by MCJ

A flyer at my local library – that’s right! I went to a real life, bricks-and-mortar library! It was so nostalgic – tells me my local council is having collection in a neighbouring suburb… in July. I doubt it’s going to get much better than this, but frankly, it’s a fucking joke.