Vermont claims battery stewardship first

United States – Legislators in Vermont have passed the USA’s first single-use battery product stewardship law. Scheduled to come into effect at the start of next year, it will require manufacturers of single-use batteries to develop a programme for their collection and recycling at end of life.

While some municipal governments and private organisations in the USA are already collecting and recycling single-use batteries on a voluntary basis, their efforts are largely inconsistent and expensive, according to state legislator and initiator of the bill Tony Klein. Besides demanding more from manufacturers, the programme also aims to encourage recycling commitment among consumers.

′Although the bill doesn′t address all of the issues that industry sought to resolve, it provides a great foundation for what is needed to achieve what we all wanted – a collection system to keep batteries out of the waste stream,′ notes Jennifer Holliday of the Vermont Product Stewardship Council.

Carl Smith, ceo and president of Call2Recycle – a leading battery product stewardship programme across North America – also applauds this latest development. ′We look forward to working with the battery industry in developing, submitting and operating a plan that ensures Vermont has the most successful battery collection and recycling programme in North America,′ he comments.

Call2Recycle has been active for two decades in Vermont, where it has developed a network of more than 100 collection sites that have amassed nearly 200 000 pounds of batteries.

For more information, visit: www.call2recycle.org