Battery confusion has made UK ‘go backwards’

United Kingdom – Inconsistency over the definition of portable batteries has led the UK recycling industry to ‘€˜go backwards’€™ since 2008, G&P Batteries’€™ Managing Director Michael Green has told letsrecycle.com. The battery specialist says the disparity in interpretation between recyclers and producers is likely to have skewed recent data on the sector’€™s recycling performance.

Many in the industry still hold differing opinions of what constitutes a portable and industrial battery, asserts Mr Green. ‘€˜The producers of some lead-acid batteries are saying that they are selling their batteries exclusively into industrial applications. But the recycling sector which is sorting them has no way of knowing whether the application is industrial or portable. It is the application of the definition that is the root of the problem.’€™

Recent updates by the Environment Agency indicate that the UK achieved a collection rate of around 32% during the first six months of 2012. This would mean the country is on its way meet its obligation under the EU Battery Directive, in which the current target of collecting 25% of portable batteries has been raised to 45% by 2016.

Yet while lead-acid batteries represent a large proportion of all the batteries being recycled as ‘€˜portable’€™, they account for only a small amount – some 13% – of the portable batteries put on the market. Therefore, Mr Green has serious doubts about whether the UK battery industry has improved its performance over the past couple of years, claiming that it has met its recycling obligation through collecting ‘€˜disproportionately high levels’€™ of lead-acid batteries.

Mr Green suspects lead-acid batteries have maintained a healthy collection rate for some years owing to their high value. If so, this means the portable lead-acid batteries being reported today were being collected at similar levels before the regulations entered force.

‘€˜By this measure, the UK arguably has gone backwards in recycling those batteries that the regulations were designed to increase, and has maintained its already good record in recycling lead-acid batteries,’€™ he suggests.

For more information, visit: www.g-pbatt.co.uk