UK on course for battery recycling self-sufficiency

United Kingdom – Belmont Trading UK Ltd and resource efficiency specialist Ecosurety are joining forces to process up to 20 000 tonnes of batteries per year. The batteries will be recycled at Belmont’€™s Kilwinning facility near Glasgow where more than £300 000 (US$ 390 000) worth of equipment will be installed by next month in preparation for the start-up of sorting and shredding operations from November.

The companies contend that the project will make the UK ‘self-sufficient’ in battery recycling as the country prepares to leave the EU.

‘This partnership means the UK could potentially stop sending batteries abroad for recycling, reducing the additional environmental impacts of shipping tens of thousands of tonnes of potentially hazardous waste across the sea to Northern Europe every year,’ comments Damian Lambkin, head of innovation at Ecosurety.

‘It is also a big win for producers who will not have to cover the additional cost burdens of sending spent batteries overseas,’ he says. ‘This is proof that the UK waste and recycling industry can find its own innovative solutions to our waste resourcing issues through partnership working.’

Jeff Borrman, UK managing director at Belmont Trading, remarks: ‘We strongly believe that greater transparency between producers and reprocessors can revolutionise their relationships, a vision we know is 100% shared by Ecosurety, and we look forward to helping domestic battery producers extract maximum economic value with minimum environmental impact by recycling in the UK.’