Battery recycling trials take to the streets

From this week, Camden council and contractor Veolia Environmental Services are providing 38 on-street battery collection bins for small household batteries – the first service of its kind in the country.

Camden council leader Cllr Keith Moffitt joins children at Gospel Oak primary school where a new battery recycling point has been installed

Designed to take AAA, AA, C and D size cells, the scheme will be complemented by a larger battery recycling service at a local recycling centre – and mirrors a project using 22 bins in Cherwell.

All batteries will be sent to G&P; Batteries in Derbyshire, believed to be the only UK company capable of pre-treating household batteries.

The trials are being co-ordinated by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), who is currently running a range of different battery trials to establish the most cost-effective method of collection in the UK under the Battery Directive (see letsrecycle.com story).

Under the legislation, which was published into UK law last year, all battery producers in EU member states will be obligated to pay towards the cost of collecting 25% of household batteries by 2012.

Commenting on the new scheme, leader of Camden council Keith Moffitt said: “Camden residents are the first in the country to recycle their batteries at community drop-off points. By making battery recycling simple and easy, we want more people to recycle all their used and unwanted batteries rather than throwing them away.”

Trials


As part of WRAP's battery recycling trials, kerbside battery collections schemes are operating in 13 local authority areas across the UK as well as retail take-back schemes in Swansea, Perth & Kinross in Scotland and Eastleigh in Hampshire (see letsrecycle.com story).

Plans have also been laid to launch new postal trials in parts of Cumbria and Dumfries in Galloway.

Chris Davey, batteries programme manager at WRAP, said: “It is quick and easy to add batteries to your recycling routine and every battery counts. We're urging local people to make battery recycling a regular habit and help divert some of the estimated 600 million batteries that are used in the UK every year from landfill.”

Collections


A second initiative to boost recycling was also launched in Camden this week.

The London borough is to start a trial next month which will see 6,000 homes receiving two recycling collections a week and one refuse collection, instead of two refuse collections and one recycling collection.

The swap in balance is hoped to reduce the 85,000 tonnes of rubbish produced by Camden homes each year – despite the borough achieving a 27% recycling rate in 2005/06.

Councillor Mike Greene, executive member for the environment at Camden council, said: “We will still collect waste three times a week in total, but we hope that giving residents an extra chance to recycle will encourage them to do it more and cut the amount we are sending to landfill.”

He added: “This will help the environment as well as meaning Camden taxpayers don't have to pay as much in landfill duties.”