A government-mandated, provincewide household battery recycling program will be launched July 1 in an effort to reduce waste in B.C.'s landfills, the Ministry of Environment announced Tuesday.

Call2Recycle, a private, nonprofit organization, previously collected and recycled only rechargeable batteries and cellphones from retailers, businesses and municipalities across B.C.

Now it has been selected by the provincial government to collect and recycle all household batteries under 11 pounds (five kg) -- including rechargeable, alkaline, cellphones and household appliances -- at selected pickup locations.

Call2Recycle has been partnering with retailers in B.C. such as London Drugs, Home Depot and Best Buy since 1997.

The stores would collect batteries from staff and customers and then ship them off to Call2Recycle.

The collection program would then melt the batteries, separate the metals and reuse them as materials in fertilizers and cement.

London Drugs, which sells its own brand of batteries as well as others, has been sending used batteries to Call2Recycle for the last eight years, said administrator of retail operations, Maury McCausland.

"We've only opened up the recycling program to our customers in the last two years," he said.

"We encourage them to drop off used batteries through our website, advertising and inside our stores. A lot of them love doing it, they think helping the environment is the right thing to do."