Battery recycling day delivers $12,000 to conservation group

15 May 2008

The RAC’s first battery recycling day, held on Saturday 3 May, has raised more than $12,000 for Bush Heritage Australia, wildly exceeding expectations.

The RAC committed to donating $10 for every battery one of its members dropped off and $5 for every battery from a non-member to Bush Heritage Australia (BHA). West Australians dropped off 1,476 old batteries to RAC Auto Service Centres on the day.

The money raised will go towards conservation efforts in the Charles Darwin Reserve, which is a 68,000 hectare area located four hours north-east of Perth, and Eurardy Reserve near Geraldton.

RAC Batteries Product Manager Steve Buttery said he was pleased so many West Australians went to the effort of turning in their dead batteries for recycling.

“We were overwhelmed by the number of batteries coming into the RAC Auto Service Centres, particularly given this was the first time a battery recycling day had happened in WA,” he said.

“It’s great to have nearly fifteen hundred batteries out of backyards and sheds where they pose a huge environmental and safety hazard.”

The donated batteries will be safely recycled into new batteries. About 96 per cent of each battery is recyclable, with a staggering 8kg of lead able to be extracted from a single automotive battery.

“The RAC estimates there could be about 40,000 old batteries across WA, and we hope to make the battery recycling day a regular event so we can recycle as many as possible,” Mr Buttery said.

Bush Heritage Acting Chief Executive Pamela Sutton said there was so much money raised that it would be used for revegetation projects at two of its Western Australian reserves, rather than the original plan of just one reserve.

Download the release