Defra urged to address battery safety concerns

Defra has been urged to address health and safety concerns relating to the collection and storage of waste batteries.

Minutes published this week from the latest meeting of the Agencies' and Industry Batteries Operational Liaison Group (AIBOLG) – which discusses the practical issues surrounding the Battery Regulations -show that the issue was raised as a concern in October.

Michael Green, of West Midlands-based battery recycling company G&P Batteries, sought assurance that work was being done to address concerns around the collection and storing of batteries at collection points.

In response, Bob Mead, batteries project manager at the Environment Agency, said he had discussed industry concerns with Defra.

The minutes said: “Bob said that he had discussed this [health and safety issues] with Defra and expressed the concerns raised at the meeting in that Defra should encourage HSE to address this issues and if this could not be done then Defra may wish to address it themselves.”

Issues

Concerns over health and safety issues surrounding the collection of batteries came to the fore at the Household Hazardous Waste Conference last month.

At the event, waste management firm Viridor warned that there is currently a lack of awareness of the risks of storing batteries among retailers and offices carrying out on-site collections (see letsrecycle.com story).

The AIBOLG working group is comprised of five industry representatives, four members of the Environment Agency, two from the Northern Irish Environment Agency and a representative of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.

The next meeting of the AIBOLG is set to take place at G&P Batteries in Wednesbury in the West Midlands on February 2 2011.