Defra published today a new white paper addressing possible means of accomplishing the goals set forth in the new Batteries and Accumulators Directive. While recycling batteries is now at a current collection rate of 3% or 600 tonnes, the goal for the immediate futher is to 7,500 tonnes by 2012.
In the UK about 30,000 tonnes of household portable batteries are making their way into consumer’s hands each year. A minimum collection rate of 25% must be achieved by 2012 rising to 45% by 2016. Defra faces a stiff challenge in attempting to implement these goals.
Defra notes that costs of collecting batteries are prohibitive. At £1,000 a tonne for sorting and recycling portable batteries, other materials that could be handled by local councils would be much cheaper to recycle. In addition, the task is also difficult because other materials could contribute to the achievement of Best Value Performance indicators much more handily.
The paper states that targets for vehicle lead-acid batteries could be met because of the material value, while household battery use remains the most difficult. Defra extrapolated they could begin to look at legislation for manufactures and retailers if the market price of lead were to drop, however.
Defrahe maintains that in the case of household batteries, kerbside collections currently in place may not collect enough of these batteries. The document says: “Extrapolation of the WRAP data for the kerbside trials would suggest that, in an ideal scenario where every local authority provided kerbside collection to every UK household (22 million) at current collection rates, 2,000 tonnes of batteries would be collected using kerbside collection. The remainder of batteries would need to be collected from other sources which could potentially include retailer take back, community drop off and the commercial sector.
www.defra.gov.uk
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