Defra is sifting through industry suggestions of how the UK might feasibly reach such a target, set by the EU Battery Directive, and said yesterday (April 17) that it will reveal more of its intentions later in the Spring.
However, the government's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which is leading the implementation of the Directive in cooperation with Defra, today cast doubt on whether the final regulations will be in place by September 26. This is the deadline set by the EU Directive for implementation.
Tony Pedrotti, director of sustainable development at BERR, said: “Whether or not we hit the September deadline will depend on responses to that consultation.”
Whether or not they are completely on schedule, the regulations will ultimately require battery manufacturers and importers to fund collection and recycling activities. And, they are likely to include takeback obligations for retailers.
Speaking at the Recycling and Waste Forum 2008 near Birmingham, Ms Sharda said the government has had 115 responses to its latest battery recycling consultation, which ended March 2008. She said 107 of these responses related to portable battery measures required to meet the Directive's target of a 25% collection rate by 2012.
“We are currently formulating policy decisions in the light of these responses,” she said. “The government will respond in late Spring, which will be followed by a second consultation on draft regulations in the summer.”
The UK is currently collecting around 3% of portable batteries, with much of this collection the result of trials run by the government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme to inform its policymaking process.
Chris Davey, WRAP's battery manager, said at the same RWF 2008 event today that the 7,500 tonne target would mean “we will have to collect something between 200 million batteries in 2012”. When the EU Directive target rises to 45% of portable batteries four years later, Mr Davey suggested 400 million portable batteries would have to be collected.
The final report detailing the WRAP trial results should be published next month, Mr Davey suggested, but he revealed that it had shown that “at best”, kerbside recycling collections could only pick up 2,700 tonnes to 3,500 tonnes of waste batteries. Even this “optimistic figure” was based on the assumption of full participation by householders, but Mr Davey said kerbside was not suited to some types of household, although he said kerbside schemes “perform well” compared to other collection methods.
Local authorities outside the WRAP programme are currently collecting just 130 tonnes of batteries a year, mostly through civic amenity sites. “Local authorities don't want to pay for anything they aren't required to do at the moment with all the Budget problems,” Mr Davey said.
There will be additional tonnage from householders who cannot access a kerbside scheme, but Mr Davey said it would ultimately be important to collect portable batteries from the workplace. Even though industrial and automotive batteries are seeing much higher collection rates than portable batteries, Mr Davey said: “There are portable batteries in businesses that are not being collected.”
Compliance
Ahead of the full government response to its consultation result, Ms Sharda revealed that there had been no overall majority of stakeholders in favour of either a single compliance scheme to manage battery producer responsibility, or a multiple compliance scheme option. But, she said responses had generally called for competition in the system.
This comes despite consultation responses from the Local Government Association, Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee and WRAP had all advocated a single compliance scheme (see letsrecycle.com story).
Generally, responses have been in favour of interim targets to monitor progress towards the 2012 and 2016 collection targets, but there is no clear preference for whether such targets should be mandatory or not.
She said there was “strong support” for retailers playing a role in collecting batteries, and that stakeholders did not generally support exemptions for smaller retailers.
Ms Sharda stressed that for a cost-effective and efficient battery recycling system, consultation responses stated that “publicity is key, and there will need to be a range of collection services”. She added that there were big questions over who would pay for kerbside collections.
On the evidence to be used within a battery recycling system, she suggested there were concerns about any possible trading system, and that it would be “feasible” for recycling facilities to gather evidence.
Implementing and enforcing the producer responsibility side of the Directive will prove challenging, with Mr Davey revealing that WRAP's trials suggested there were “nationally as many as 1,200 brands of UK battery on the market, let alone batteries being imported”.
Definitions of exactly what would be classed as portable, industrial or automotive batteries – which all have different targets under the Directive – was a “minefield”, Mr Davey warned.
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