Last October, members of the Hazardous Waste Forum had been given a gloomy forecast by the Derbyshire-based battery reprocessing company concerning the amount of batteries they expected to receive in the remainder of 2005.
” People are almost certainly going to hold onto the hazardous waste longer now these controls are in place.“
– David Wheeler, HJ Enthovens
The Forum was warned that receipts of waste lead-acid batteries were 14% lower than budget, with predictions made that stocks could become up to 70% below normal levels in the rest of the year.
This situation followed the introduction of new controls on hazardous waste in July 2005, such that transferring batteries now requires the purchase of a consignment note for a 100 fee.
But speaking to letsrecycle.com prior to today's meeting of the Hazardous Waste Forum, HJ Enthovens quality and environment manager, David Wheeler, said the receipt of batteries had actually picked up during the remainder of the year.
He said: “At the time, we stated people were reluctant to consign, and that they might be either holding onto stock until it was worth consigning or something else was happening to those batteries. We do seem to have had a bit of an up turn in the rest of the year, though, the situation has recovered.”
Change
He said there was no evidence of an increase in fly-tipping, but suggested merchants were now holding on to batteries for longer, in order to deliver them for reprocessing in larger loads.
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Before the consignment note system came into force, Mr Wheeler said a lot of the batteries they received were in small quantities from small merchants.
He said: “The impact of the regulations is going to change the way these batteries are collected. People are almost certainly going to hold onto the hazardous waste longer now these controls are in place. If you are paying the same amount to take five batteries as you are 20 tonnes' worth, you are going to minimise the number of deliveries.
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