Leeds-based WasteCare is to launch a free national recovery service on July 1, while Valpak is set to increase its efforts to attract interest from batteries manufacturers and importers for its own pre-compliance scheme.
WasteCare's chief executive, Peter Hunt, told letsrecycle.com that BatteryBack was being established in an attempt to avoid the “pandemonium” that was experienced when the EU directive for waste electronics and electrical equipment (WEEE) was introduced in
“What we don't want to happen again is that there was pandemonium when the regulations came through,” he explained, referring to the large number of producer compliance schemes that sprang up when the WEEE regulations were introduced.
“We're not going to end up with the same bun-fight as last time,” he added, with BatteryBack starting operations as a not-for-profit company seeking to gain input from battery manufacturers, retailers and local authorities.
However, BatteryBack plans to offer a charging compliance scheme to companies under the legislation, the nature of which will depend on how the Batteries Directive is regulated in the UK.
The initial service will use WasteCare's existing network of collection vehicles which serve more than 30,000 businesses and local authorities. The company hopes to collect batteries from specially-designed BatteryCans placed at civic amenity sites, schools and supermarkets.
Once collected, the batteries will be sent to one of two sites in Belgium operated by Revatech, where they will be processed using a wet recycling system for alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries know as Revabat.
Mr Hunt said that he believed using combined collections and collections from supermarkets, schools and other large buildings represented the cheapest option for collection while providing sufficient quantities to get the UK past a 30% recycling target.
“What we're looking to do is encourage the most cost-effective route where the volume's going to come in,” he said. “It keeps the costs down, gets the quickest rollout and gets us to targets.”
Uncertainty
The launch of the WasteCare scheme comes despite there being uncertainty over exactly what batteries manufacturers and importers involved in the UK market will have to do to meet their producer obligations when the new regulations come into force.
The Government is yet to publish the results of a major consultation, held between December 2007 and March 2008, examining potential methods by which the UK could reach its target of recycling 25% of household batteries by 2012.
And the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) plans to hold a further consultation on the collection, treatment and recycling processes included within the Directive over the summer.
As a result, BERR officials have admitted that the September deadline may come and go without the final UK regulations being in place (see letsrecycle.com story) and Mr Hunt said that “we're now not expecting the new regulations until early 2009”.
Responses to the government consultation revealed support from bodies including LARAC and WRAP for a single nationwide compliance scheme to allow producers to meet their recycling obligations (see letsrecycle.com story), and Mr Hunt indicated that, if that was the method introduced, BatteryBack would bid for that.
However, Mr Hunt also explained that, if the eventual system found a BatteryBack compliance scheme competing against rival companies, he would hope to win as much business as possible.
“If somebody comes up with an alternative then let's see what they have to offer and how competitive they are,” he said. “I don't want there to be a monopoly, I would much rather there be more than one scheme and obviously not 20 or 30”.
Valpak
WasteCare are not the first company to make preparations for the implementation of the Batteries Directive, with Valpak launching its 'pre-compliance' scheme last year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Speaking to letsrecycle.com today about the progress of the scheme, Valpak's marketing manager, Duncan Simpson, said: “I believe we've got just under 50 names, and some of the big players are involved.”
“In many respects we think the main thing at the moment is to identify the people who will be obligated for batteries,” he added, explaining that the company was looking to attract interest from both small and large players in the industry.
Valpak looks set to be in direct competition with WasteCare in the event of there being either a single or multiple compliance scheme system with Mr Simpson revealing that “if there's a single scheme we'd bid for that, if there was a competitive system, then that's what we'd like to see, because its good for the industry and good for competition”.
“I'm sure that there will be a number of people coming into the regulations,” he said, “But Valpak has a lot of experience since 1997.”
“We've started putting together data handling systems and we've started our marketing drive,” he added.
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