That was the message sent by the Local Government Association to the government in the latest consultation on proposals for a new European Battery Directive. The consultation, which closed last week, aimed to help the government in negotiating the new Directive at a European level.
The new Directive is likely to see new collection and recycling targets for batteries, with financial responsibility for recovering materials placed on producers.
In their response to the government's consultation, the British Battery Manufacturers Association said that local authorities should be given the main responsibility to collect portable batteries for recycling (see letsrecycle.com story).
But while accepting that local authorities would end up with a “significant level of involvement” in the collection of batteries because of their existing collection infrastructure, the LGA is opposing “any measure that would result in increased costs falling on local authorities as a result of the directive”.
The LGA said: “The costs of collection should be covered under the producer responsibility principle, with producers meeting the costs, not the taxpayer.”
It said collection costs should be met by consumers “either directly or indirectly”, which might take the form of a “visible fee”. Battery manufacturers also support the idea of a visible fee for end users, but believe this should be applied at a European level, to avoid potential disadvantages to businesses caused by any differences in interpretation of the regulations between Member States.
Retail points
The Battery manufacturers said it would be “uneconomic and environmentally unsound” if batteries were collected anywhere but in existing local authority collection infrastructure. But leaving collections to local authorities would result in fewer opportunities to recycle batteries for householders, the LGA said, as it would rule out retailer collection points and those in offices and schools.
This would be particularly important, the LGA told letsrecycle.com, since one trial of battery recycling it had undertaken so far had shown that kerbside collection “produces limited results” for batteries.
“A wider infrastructure network, including retail points, is likely to be needed and would be in line with the successful battery recycling that we see in other Member States,” an LGA spokeswoman said.
NiCd
In other areas, the LGA said its experience suggested collection rates for batteries in the region of 60 – 70% would be possible. It suggested an initial collection target of 40 – 50%, graduated with time to reach an “overall aim for all Member States to achieve 65 – 75% collection”.
The LGA supported all collected batteries being recycled, and argues against allowing 10% of batteries to be exempt from being recycled, particularly nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries. It said allowing significant amounts of the heavy metal cadmium into the environment would be “unacceptable”, and said a ban would prove more effective.
It said: “The LGA supports a ban on marketing of NiCd batteries, and a stronger focus on waste prevention by stopping cadmium entering the waste stream and focusing on the strong performance of alternative battery sources.”
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