The peak body for Australia’s lighting industry and the Queensland Government have launched a program to divert emergency and exit lighting batteries from landfill.
The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (DEHP) and Lighting Council Australia are encouraging organisations, shopping centres and councils to sign up to the ‘EXITCYCLE’ initiative and commit to recycling their emergency lighting batteries.
Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection Dr Steven Miles said the EXITCYCLE program would start with a 12-month pilot in Queensland.
“We’re encouraging voluntary recycling action from big business and corporate groups to prevent emergency and exit light batteries from ending up in landfill,” explained Minister Miles. “About 90 per cent of emergency lighting batteries contain nickel cadmium, which is a toxic heavy metal, and less than 5 per cent are recycled.
“The pilot will provide valuable information to feed into the development of a national rechargeable battery product stewardship scheme.”
Lighting Council Australia hopes to migrate the pilot scheme to a fully-fledged national voluntary recycling program at the end of the trial.
Its CEO, Bryan Douglas, emphasised the importance of the EXITCYCLE initiative.
“When it comes to heavy metals most attention is focused on mercury,” he said. “However, it should be remembered that in most respects cadmium rivals mercury in its toxicity and potential harm to human health and the environment.”
EXITCYCLE will be based on and complement Lighting Council Australia’s existing FluoroCycle scheme for end-of-life, mercury-containing lamps.
Private and government sector organisations in Queensland will be approached to become signatories to the EXITCYCLE scheme.