PRIMARY school pupils have put their creative skills to the test with the aim of encouraging people to recycle their used batteries.

Year six pupils at Lowercroft Primary School helped to create a new animation to boost awareness of the campaign after research showed there were an estimated 1.5 million used batteries in Greater Manchester households.

The study was commissioned by REPIC, the UK’s largest not-for-profit Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) producer recycling scheme.

It revealed that more than half of people in Manchester don’t recycle their old batteries.

Across the UK, 42 per cent of respondents admitted they do not recycle their old batteries: 38 per cent of these claimed they didn’t know where to recycle them, 24 per cent said they didn’t know you could recycle them and 21 per cent didn’t know they should recycle them.

30 pupils at the school, in Ashington Drive, contributed towards the animation, drawing upon their imagination and storytelling skills to create a video that would appeal to a family audience in order to highlight the importance – and best practice – of battery recycling.

The children illustrated the recycling process, drawing futuristic robot designs to show what goes on inside a battery recycling plant.

Their hand-drawn designs were then brought to life in a two-minute video created by North West animation company, Kilogramme.

A number of pupils were then invited along to a recording studio to narrate the animation.

REPIC say that they hope the video will be shared widely across social media to help generate awareness throughout the UK and educate people about the importance of battery recycling.

Mark Burrows-Smith, CEO of REPIC, said: “The figures from the national survey suggest up to 54% of people in the Manchester area are still putting their old batteries in general rubbish bins, which will be sent straight to landfill sites.

“We’d like to thank the pupils at Lowercroft Primary School for helping us to create the video, which we hope will encourage more people to change old habits and start thinking more about battery recycling.”

The animation is available to view at www.responsible-recycling.co.uk.