Speaking to letsrecycle.com about Duracell's decision yesterday, ERP's UK general manager, Scott Butler, claimed it helped to vindicate the approach his prospective scheme planned to take.
“It's great and encouraging that their view of the world is in line with our view of the world,” he said, explaining that despite having one of the biggest producers on its books, ERP would still be looking to sign up more: ” Duracell is the start of that rather than the end of that.”
He said that “we'll hopefully be tying up formal partnerships with three or four major retailers” and added that “with local authorities we have already got relationships with we've assured them that batteries is part of our agenda and we can take them off them for our scheme.”
Duracell, which has a 55% share of the UK portable battery market, is owned by Procter & Gamble, and the company's environmental external relations manager, Khush Marolia, said: “”The targets for recycling used batteries set by the regulations are very challenging; we think ERP has the right credentials to take them on.
“As the market leader we are very keen to ensure that the impacts on the environment of collecting and recycling used batteries are kept to a minimum and reduced continually over time,” he added.
Mr Butler claimed that he was “confident” the systems ERP had in place would mean that it could provide a service to the producers, retailers and local authorities who decided to become involved in the scheme if it was approved.
Under the UK batteries system, all battery producers putting more than one tonne of portable batteries a year onto the market will be expected to join a scheme to fund the collection, treatment and recycling of waste batteries from January 1 2010, while all retailers, or distributors, selling more than 32kg a year of batteries will be expected to provide free in-store take-back for waste batteries from February 1 2010.
Local authorities have no formal responsibilities under the UK regulations, which came into force in May 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story), but are expected to represent a key collection route for batteries as the UK looks to recycle 25% of waste portable batteries by 2012.
Mr Butler said that, as a result of ERP's work on battery compliance elsewhere in Europe: “We think we have got a good insight into how it would develop. We have made solid assumptions and what's great is a major producer seems to agree with them.”
Assessing
He claimed that there was unlikely to be a “mad scramble” among the approved schemes after next Wednesday's decision, explaining that “all of those people who have major obligations will already have been assessing the market”.
As a result, he expected the two week period before October 15 to mean that “a lot of paperwork will be going back and forth” as schemes looked to formalise their arrangements with
The eight prospective batteries compliance schemes were originally named in June 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story), with the list dominated by companies which already run either WEEE or packaging compliance schemes, or both.
With a relatively small number of obligated producers, and concerns over the high cost of collecting sufficient batteries for schemes to meet their obligations, many in the sector expected fierce competition between prospective schemes looking to make their operations viable and cost-effective (see letsrecycle.com story).
Valpak
Duncan Simpson, commercial director at prospective scheme Valpak, explained that his scheme had visited all of the “top prospects” among producers and retailers over the last few months and was now in the process of “chasing down those prospects”.
He told letsrecycle.com: “We have had a pre-compliance scheme for batteries and have been actively recruiting people into the scheme on the basis that there's no holding if we're not approved.”
Claiming that Valpak's offering “seems to be going down well with them,” Mr Simpson noted that, in terms of managing data, “most of the systems are up-and-running because we already have systems for WEEE and packaging”.
Explaining that the scheme had been looking at all aspects of its offering, including end markets for treating batteries and the participation routes for different collection routes, he said that Valpak had “good partnerships” and, as a result, “I think we're in a very good position”.
Budget Pack
ERP's provisional agreement with Duracell comes as another prospective scheme, Budget Pack, also revealed the identity of one of its prospective members.
The Bristol-based company, which last month joined forces with a rival WEEE scheme B2B Compliance to offer batteries compliance to its members (see letsrecycle.com story), said members of the Photo Imaging Council (PIC) – a trade body representing camera companies – were “expected” to confirm it as the chosen scheme for its membership.
PIC's Elaine Cole said “The professionalism and support that Budget Pack have offered our members for WEEE compliance, makes them our preferred scheme for batteries compliance. We expect to see Budget Pack continue to operate by their company mantra of bringing fairness and flexibility to the compliance market.”
And, Budget Pack's client services director, James Potten, added: “We look forward to further strengthening our relationship with the photographic and imaging industry, to ensure we offer each and every member of our scheme the tailored service they deserve.”
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