The first week of September was announced by the European association of national collection schemes for batteries EUCOBAT as the European Week of Battery Recycling. The purpose of this event is to raise public awareness of the need to sort and recycle used batteries. The Slovaks quickly learned how to handle the used batteries. Since 2015, the ASEKOL SK organization helped sort and recycle 495,278 kg of used portable batteries.

ASEKOL SK, the Slovak producer responsibility organisation for electronic waste, batteries and accumulators, as the only member of EUCOBAT from Slovakia, used the European Battery Recycling Week to go through the current results of collection and recycling of used portable batteries in Slovakia.

“We have been collecting and recycling batteries and accumulators systematically since 2015 when we collected 98,288 kg of used portable batteries. In the subsequent year of 2016, we increased this volume by more than 25% and we collected up to 125,000 kg of portable batteries. In 2017, our collected amount almost doubled compared to 2015 and we collected up to 193,000 kg of used portable batteries. After addding the 2018 interim results, we are closer to the symbolic limit of 500,000 kilograms” said Ronald Blaho, Executive officer of ASEKOL SK.

“We are pleased by the increased interest of people in recycling and sorting of waste which we observed at events organized on the occasion of the European Week of Battery Recycling at selected business centres in Bratislava,” he added.

Announcement of the European Week of Battery Recycling by European association of national collection schemes for batteries EUCOBAT on the first week of September was symbolic, as on September 9, 1737, the famous Italian physician and physicist Luigi Galvani was born. He became famous for his experiments with the so-called animal electricity. His exploration led his contemporary and opponent Allesandro Volta to the construction of the first galvanic cell, the principle of which became the basic design element of all electric batteries and accumulators