Chinese citizens are told to collect and recycle depleted dry batteries in a bid to improve the environment.

Used batteries, now a major source of pollution, are piling up in their billions each year across China and have mostly been dumped as garbage in this country. Their dangerous contents have leaked into surrounding air, soil and waters, said experts.

The recycling of waste batteries has been eclipsed in the country since the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), said Zhou Zhongfan, a senior engineer with the Chinese Research Institute of Environmental Sciences, in an interview with "China Daily".

Last year, 14 billion batteries were used in China, only a small fraction were retrieved through spontaneous public efforts, said information from the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

"A large quantity of mercury, cadmium, lead and other pernicious materials from these waste batteries was released into the surrounding environment, which gravely threatens public health and ecology," said Zhou.

Even the small amount of retrieved batteries have not been properly recycled to make them harmless and reusable, said the engineer.

In China, the job of collecting waste batteries is handled by private businessmen. There is no nationwide recycling network. So more retrieval stations should be established to recycle depleted batteries, Zhou suggested.

In Beijing, there are now 300 garbage battery retrieving stations. This year, the city plans to retrieve some 300,000 tons of waste batteries, said an official with the Beijing Garbage Recycling Center of the Municipal Sanitation Bureau.

Each batch of waste batteries to be retrieved is so small that factories have a tough time using normal recycling means, the official complained.

Each year, about 13,000 to 14,000 tons of zinc, or 13 percent of the country's total zinc output, are used in producing dry batteries. And the country can recover some 40,000 tons of zinc through recycling depleted batteries.

There are 300 small battery factories in the country. They waste resources, and could cause harmful pollution without producing enough to justify their existence.

To enhance public awareness of this issue, SEPA is currently drafting a governmental regulation to standardize the production, distribution, transportation and disposal of waste batteries.

"Battery producers, consumers, and even the whole society should share the responsibility of retrieving and recycling waste batteries, instead of depending only on government orders," Zhou added.

Since October, Beijing families have begun paying a sanitation fee of three yuan per month to help the city's garbage recycling drive.