Electrical Connection Autumn 2016

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30 E L EC TR I C AL CONNEC T I ON AU T UMN 20 1 6
EXIT, STAGE LEFT
L ighting Council Australia has
launched a new battery recycling
initiative to prevent cadmium, a
highly toxic heavy metal, entering the
environment.
Cadmium is used in approximately
90% of emergency and exit lighting
batteries and is almost as toxic as
mercury – and yet 90,000kg of this
heavy metal is dumped in Australian
landfills every year.
“It is very important that we begin
to divert cadmium from landfill, collect
it and recycle it,” says Lighting Council
chief executive Bryan Douglas.
“It’s quite similar to mercury in
its toxicity and there is insufficient
attention given to address the potential
hazards.
“Emergency lighting is ubiquitous. In
almost every commercial establishment
we see emergency lighting and that is why
we have so many ending up as landfill. We
need to address this problem now.”
Lighting Council already has a similar
scheme called FluroCycle that focuses
on mercury-containing lamps. This
nationwide voluntary scheme encourages
commercial and public organisations
to become signatories, committing
themselves to recycling mercury-
containing lamps and in return improving
their environmental reputation.
On the back of the successful FluroCycle
campaign, Lighting Council is working
with the Queensland Department of
Environmental and Heritage Protection
on a voluntary pilot program to recycle
exit and emergency lighting batteries.
While the main reason for basing the
pilot in Queensland is the support of the
local government, the Sunshine State
also makes an ideal testing ground,
Bryan says.
“Queensland is very suitable for this
pilot project. It will provide valuable
lessons for us in getting these batteries
from both a major metropolitan area and
regional centres to recycling centres,”
he says.
“At this stage it is a Queensland
project, with the generous support of
the Queensland government, but at the
end of the 12 month pilot period, we do
hope to migrate the initiative to a fully-
fledged national scheme.”
Lighting Council’s role is to recruit
signatories for the initiative, as it did
(and continues to do) with the FluroCycle
scheme. FluroCycle currently has more
than 200 signatories, providing an
excellent base of potential signatories
for the new scheme to draw from. The
success of the FluroCycle has certainly
helped the launch of ExitCycle.
“FluroCycle provided some valuable
lessons for us in rolling out a program
like this and is probably one of
the reasons why the Queensland
Government chose to work with
Lighting Council. We have built up a
lot of experience with FluroCycle, and
ExitCycle closely mirrors FluroCycle in its
approach,” Bryan says.
“The scheme will operate along very
similar lines to FluroCycle, in that we will
have a signatory category of ‘battery
collector’. Those collectors will collect
the product and transport it to the
recycling centres.”
As yet, the scheme does not have any
publicised goals.
“As this is a pilot program, we have
not established recycling targets;
however, recyclers are required to
provide Lighting Council with recycling
data as part of their signatory
commitments,” Bryan explains.
Lighting Council is acting on its own
initiative in setting up the scheme;
there’s no push from government or
environmental groups.
“We like to think we’re acting
responsibly as an industry and taking
responsibility for the products our
members are putting onto the market,”
Bryan says.
The Queensland Government is vocal
in its support of ExitCycle.
“We are proud to support Lighting
Council and encourage the use of
environmentally appropriate solutions to
managing our wastes,” says Queensland
Minister for Environment and Heritage
Protection, Dr Steven Miles.
“A number of large businesses and
organisations such as the Brisbane
Convention and Exhibition Centre have
already committed to battery recycling
and should be commended.”
> ExitCycle
EVERY YEAR, FIVE MILLION
NICKEL-CADMIUM (NICD)
BATTERIES ARE SENT TO
LANDFILL, DUMPING 90
TONNES OF CADMIUM INTO THE
ENVIRONMENT. NOW, A NEW
SCHEME AIMS TO RECYCLE THESE
EMERGENCY AND EXIT LIGHTING
BATTERIES INSTEAD. KATE
JORDAN REPORTS.
RECYCLING