Norway supermarket chain pioneers battery recycling machines

COPENHAGEN – Norway’s second-largest supermarket chain says it has launched reverse vending machines that give customers discount coupons for new batteries when they deposit old ones for recycling.

Coop Norway spokesman Harald Kristiansen said Tuesday that the company believes the Swedish-made machines are the world’s first for batteries. Similar machines exist for glass and plastic bottles.

Kristiansen says just under 2,500 batteries have been collected in the three weeks since they were introduced.

Battery recycling is mandatory in Norway. Kristiansen says about 2,000 tons of batteries are used in the country each year, most collected as special waste.

However, a survey commission by Coop showed that as many as 26 per cent of the supermarket’s customers tossed used batteries in their household trash.