Bedford rolls out kerbside battery recycling scheme

The council is working with compliance scheme Valpak to introduce the scheme, which began last week with special battery bags being distributed to 12,500 of the boroughs properties just under 20% of its housing stock.

Residents have been told to fill their battery bag with used household batteries and, when it is full, to seal it and leave it clearly visible on top of their black residual waste bin or sacks on the normal collection day.

The bags will then be collected alongside residual waste and crews will leave a new empty replacement bag. The bags are being provided by Valpak, who have also organised for the batteries to be collected by their contractor, West Midlands-based G&P Batteries.

Commenting on the new service, Bedfords elected mayor, Dave Hodgson, said: We already have one of the most comprehensive and straightforward recycling schemes around, and a new battery collection from the doorstep will improve things further.

This is good news for the many residents who have told us they would like us to offer kerbside battery recycling, and its good news for the environment.

He added that, by providing the bags full of charge and incorporating the scheme into normal waste collection days, the council was supporting local households to recycle more.

Important role

The UK battery regulations do not place any legal responsibility on councils to collect batteries.

However, the results of the Waste and Resources Action Programmes three-year battery collection trials, published in November 2008, suggested council-run kerbside schemes were the most cost-effective way to collect household batteries (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, with the UK facing a major challenge to increase its battery collection rate to 25% by 2012, kerbside collections are expected to play an increasingly important role in the battery recycling system.

This was brought into focusthis weekby the publication of figures that appear to show that around 10% of waste portable batteries were collected for recycling in 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Roll-out

Following last weeks initial roll-out of the Bedford kerbside scheme, a spokesman said that: Subject to the successful implementation of the first phase we expect that the remaining households can be rolled out over the summer.