New battery recycling regs will make producers pay 

Regulations banning the disposal of waste industrial and automotive batteries to landfill or by incineration came into force on January 1 2010, while regulations covering the collection, recycling and reprocessing of portable batteries will come into force on February 1 2010.

From now on, organisations that use industrial batteries – for emergency or back-up power supplies in hospitals, airports or offices, for example, or in trains and aircraft and electric vehicles – will be able to ask the battery producers to arrange the collection, treatment and recycling of such batteries, free of charge.

So-called ‘final holders’ of automotive batteries, which include garages, scrap yards and civil amenity site operators, will also now be required to take back used automotive batteries from members of the public, but can then in turn request a free collection of batteries from any producer who currently supplies new batteries.

These particular regulations appear to be pushing at an open door – according to Government estimates, recycling rates for industrial and automotive batteries are already very high at around 90 per cent or more.
  
But, according to Ian Lucas, Minister for Business and Regulatory Reform, they are designed to “complement the excellent recycling rates traditionally achieved for industrial and automotive batteries.

“In simple terms, business users of industrial batteries, and final holders of automotive batteries, such as garages, end-of-life vehicle authorised treatment facilities, and civic amenity site operators, will no longer be faced with the costs that may be incurred through recycling scrap batteries. These costs will now be met by the producers.”

There is a much bigger hill to climb as far as the the collection and recycling of portable (mainly household) batteries is concerned, however. Currently, the UK’s recycling rate for this type of battery is one of the lowest in western Europe – the Environment Agency puts the figure at just three per cent.

But from February 1, producers that place more than one tonne of portable batteries on the market in a year will be required to join a Battery Compliance Scheme (BCS) which will arrange for the collection and recycling of waste portable batteries on their behalf. 

Producers placing smaller volumes of portable batteries on the market will be required to register with the Environment Agency but will not have to fund the collection or recycling of batteries.  

From February, all portable battery distributors supplying more than 32 kilogrammes of batteries a year to end users, will have to provide a ‘take-back’ facility, free of charge, so the batteries can be recycled. 

They will be required to accept all types of portable battery, not just those they sell – though they will not have to pay for their transport and treatment, this will be handled by the BCS.

It is hoped that these new measures will ensure that the ambitious new recycling targets for portable batteries, set out in the new regulations, are met.

The Government wants to see recycling rates for portable batteries increase to 25 per cent by 2012, and at least 45 per cent by 2016.