There is currently no capacity in the UK for recycling domestic batteries. The last operation to incorporate battery recycling in the country was Avonmouth-based Britannia Zinc. The zinc smelting factory had been reprocessing batteries from a Bristol city council pilot collection until it closed in February this year.
Talks
Now letsrecycle.com has learned that the UK's main collector of household batteries has been in talks with an undisclosed company about starting up a new recycling plant in the UK. This would mean batteries which are currently sent abroad for reprocessing could be dealt with closer to home.
Michael Green, managing director of Wolverhampton-based G&P; Batteries, which collects about 700 tonnes a year of non-lead acid batteries from UK companies and local authorities for recycling in France, confirmed: “We are talking to people about setting up a plant in the UK.”
Incentive
But it is unlikely that a plant would be built until more is known about a draft Batteries Directive currently progressing through the European Union (see letsrecycle.com story). Recyclers hope the Directive will set high targets for battery recycling. This would provide an incentive for UK councils to collect more batteries, and encourage British companies to invest in reprocessing.
Having a UK reprocessing facility rather than sending batteries to France would reduce the cost of transport for collectors and bring the overall price to the customer down. It would also minimise environmental pollution by vehicles, in compliance with the proximity principle.
Mr Green said: “Reports that say we shouldn't collect batteries because it's so expensive are based on how it is now, with the facilities we have in the UK. But once we start collecting more material, there could be a facility in the UK that will bring the price down.”
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