BERR urges industry to seize opportunity on batteries

And, the department has also indicated that waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) producer compliance schemes need to be aware of the significance of draft amendments to the UK WEEE Regulations, which were also published for consultation in late-December (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on the battery regulations consultation (see letsrecycle.com story), a spokesman for the department told letsrecycle.com: “We are keen for industry, especially in the current economic climate, to respond. We've brought forward the proposals, but we want to know whether they're right or can be improved.”

BERR has said that the UK faces two challenges if it is to meet its EU target of collecting 25% of waste portable batteries by 2012: how does the UK change its culture about meeting that target and what infrastructure is going to be put in place to achieve it?

The consultation document proposes the introduction of interim collection targets in its draft regulations – starting at 10% for 2010 and 18% for 2011 – aimed at giving the UK realistic goals to aim towards and showing it is moving in the right direction towards reaching the 2012 target.

Battery producers must meet their producer responsibility obligations by joining one of the compliance schemes expected to operate under the multiple scheme system unveiled by the government in July 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Retailers will also have a part to play by offering collection points for waste portable batteries, but the specifics of how individual compliance schemes choose to meet their members' obligations remain with them, opening up a variety of collection avenues.

Questions have been raised over just who bears the cost for collection and recycling once batteries have been collected by retailers, in particular in relation to the cost of transporting them from individual retailers to the “consolidation points” suggested in the consultation as a place to bring batteries together before they are sent for treatment and recycling.

The consultation envisages compliance schemes forming agreements with retailers to take away batteries they have collected, with an enforcement body helping to facilitate these arrangements and retailers' ability to contact any compliance scheme and “ask them” for collection.

And, the document appears to place the cost of collecting batteries from retailers in the hands of compliance schemes, recommending 'reverse haulage' as a way of reducing transport costs.

Market share

Under the proposed system, producers who place three tonnes or less of batteries onto the market each year – and therefore have an estimated market share of 0.01% or less – will have to join a compliance scheme and provide sales data but will not need to financially support waste battery collection and recycling. Smaller retailers, who sell less than 16kgs of batteries a year and who have a floor space of less than 280m², will not be required to provide in-store take-back facilities.

As such, the consultation says there will be “significantly less” than 50 producers who are expected to be liable for funding collection, treatment and recycling of waste portable batteries.

Producer compliance schemes will be expected to pay £5,000 a year for each of their members who are obligated to finance collection, treatment and recycling, in addition to a one-off registration fee for their scheme of £17,000 and an annual standing charge of £149,000 which will cover member registration and scrutiny by the agencies.

While producers will not pay a direct registration fee to the agencies, fears have been raised about the impact these fees could have when they are passed down to them as members of a compliance scheme, allied to the costs of funding the collection and recycling of sufficient tonnages of batteries to meet their targets

Industrial and automotive

Commenting on the proposed regulations for automotive and industrial batteries, where recycling rates are already high with established collection avenues from end users, the BERR spokesman said: “We want to deliver the industrial and automotive provisions of the Directive through the simplest regime possible, leaving current successful collection and recycling systems largely undisturbed.”

The department has emphasised the proposed regulations' similarities with the End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) system, with producers only stepping in to fund collection and recycling when end user's established arrangements with a collector become unviable for them.

Describing the planned regulations as being “largely a safety net”, the department explained that “both business and the environment will win”.

WEEE

BERR described its plans for revisions to the WEEE Regulations as bringing in more certainty for all participants through “a more focussed examination of how producer compliance schemes intend to go about meeting their members' obligations.”

This comes after the 2007 compliance period was characterised by last-minute evidence trading and deals between schemes, with concerns that the 2008 compliance period would be affected by the same situation (see letsrecycle.com story).

Under the revisions that are out for consultation, schemes' operational plans will be subject to annual monitoring to ensure they are viable and take account of the whole system.

BERR has said it recognises that some evidence trading will be necessary, but operational plans based simply on trading large amounts of evidence at the end of the settlement period for a compliance year will not be approved.

As a result, schemes are expected to work together and reach agreements on the trading of evidence throughout the compliance period.

The department is understood to be watching schemes and their actions closely and are particularly keen for schemes to be aware that if they want to carry on operating they need operational plans that set out quite clearly how they're going to discharge their members' obligations effectively, including any long-term trading agreements.

BERR is aiming to build on what it believes is a successful system by making it “more effective, to ensure it works for the producers and to collect high volumes of WEEE with high environmental benefits and by schemes working together.”

Emphasising the need for certainty, the department said that “the extremes of over- and under-collecting do cause uncertainty.” The department is understood to be hopeful of schemes responding and starting to work more together.

“Current schemes have a clear choice, work effectively together for the benefit of the system or don't be a scheme,” the department spokesman said.

BERR's consultation on the draft battery regulations, which is being run in conjunction with Defra, is open until February 13, 2009.

The department's consultation on draft revisions to the WEEE Regulations is open until April 6, 2009.