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Staff at hospital recycle batteries
HOSPITAL staff are thinking green by recycling old batteries.
Staff at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust have teamed up with Battery Back, a recycling firm which is helping to save the environment from the estimated 29,000 tonnes of batteries which go to landfill each year in the UK.
Environment, health and safety manager John Bushnall said: "Batteries contain various hazardous metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, zinc, manganese and lithium.
"It can be damaging to the environment to dispose of them through landfill as these harmful chemicals leak into the soil.
"We are installing recycling bins in both the University Hospital of Hartlepool and the University Hospital of North Tees and also in our community premises and health clinics."
Once the five-litre bins are full they will be emptied into larger 60-litre bins which will be collected by Battery Back and taken for recycling free of charge.
John added: "Recycling also helps to minimise carbon emissions by reducing the need for using new materials to manufacture batteries.
"Across the trust, we use in the region of 50,000 batteries each year so this represents a substantial contribution to reducing our carbon footprint."
The battery recycling scheme will accept AAA, AA, C and D batteries as well as
4.5-volt and 9 volt, button cell, mobile phone, camera and portable power tool batteries.
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Weather for Hartlepool
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Light sleet showers
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
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