Battery Project
Battery Project
A two year project to raise awareness for people to safely discard old batteries lying around on rural properties and also in urban areas.
Taking Action -
LLCI006-010
The issue
District vets at Central West Local Land Services (CWLLS) identified a major danger for stock during the ongoing relentless drought, which was their finding old car and truck batteries lying around and trying to lick them.
Dr Evelyn Walker had plenty to say on the subject including:
“When it’s dry like this cattle tend to chase things they wouldn’t normally chase, or eat and one of those is lead batteries, car batteries, old trucks and even motorbikes as well, it is a big issue and in fact we’ve had a couple of cases in the last couple of months in this area, so it’s something to be aware of.”
“It causes livestock deaths and unfortunately when a diagnosis of lead is made, the property goes into quarantine and we have to identify all the animals that have potentially eaten the lead and make sure that those animals don’t enter the food chain.”
The solution
MML partnered with Dubbo Junior Rugby Club to pick the batteries up for free, selling them for scrap value, as part of their community fundraising. Dr Walker said the partnership between the awareness raising staged by MML, in conjunction with Dubbo Junior Rugby, meant it was simple for people to just give the rugby guys a call to have the problem solved.
MML funded most of the Battery Project from its own resources, there was a $5000 grant from Office of Environment and Heritage to produce a video clip showing the project’s amazing success.
The impact
Dozens of young rugby players and their families were actively involved in the project and now have a far greater understanding of how important it is not to leave hazardous material lying around. The project received an enormous amount of media coverage on television, radio and in newspapers as well as via social media – this contributed to an enormous wave of publicity in the central west regarding positive environmental outcomes.
Thousands of landholders, many people in the rugby club and thousands in the general population heard about MML’s Battery Project and thought it was a great idea, combining positive environmental outcomes with activation of a junior sports club to do the onground work, with the young boys in this case also learning that you have to work hard to make money.
Key facts
- Many tonnes of batteries were collected, at one stage the drive brought in six tonnes of batteries in just a two-week period.
- Thousands of hectares of farming land were made safe for livestock because scores of discarded batteries were taken off properties and safely disposed of.