Battery Directive implementation date facing uncertainty

In the United Kingdom at least seven thousand and five hundred tonnes of portable batteries will have to be collected for recycling by the year 2012 in order to be within the European targets. In 2007 six hundred tonnes of portable batteries were collected for recycling.

Defra is considering proposals from the sector on how the United Kingdom can achieve the European targets which are contained in the European Union Battery Directive and will be disclosing the measures later this spring.

According to Anju Sharda, the policy advisor, what will follow will be discussions running for six weeks on the draft regulations in summer.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which is spearheading the execution of the battery directive in conjunction with Defra, has however indicated lack of certainty on whether the final regulations will be ready by the twenty sixth of September this year which is the final date for the implementation as specified by the European Union Battery Directive.

The director of sustainable development at Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Tony Pedrotti, hinged the meeting of the deadline on the outcome of the consultation that will be running for six weeks.

Regardless of whether the deadline is met, the draft regulations will most likely demand that manufacturers and importers of portable batteries provide the money for the collection and recycling of the batteries.

At a recycling forum, Anju Sharda disclosed that the government had received several proposals on battery recycling and most of them were concerned with portable battery recycling measures that needed to be enforced in order to attain a rate of battery recycling of twenty five per cent in four years time.