Q&A Batteries Programme

We are trialling a range of collection schemes to assess the cost and effectiveness of different types of collection schemes which will facilitate the development of infrastructure for the collection, consolidation, sorting and recycling of used and unwanted portable primary and secondary batteries.

We will be identifying further areas of work to increase the collection and recycling of primary and secondary cells and will be assessing the disposal and recycling routes for industrial batteries and to remove any barriers to increasing collection and recycling.

According to WRAP’s unpublished research carried out last year the largest other scheme is that operated by ECT Recycling in the Bristol City Council area which covered some 150,000 households using their black box kerbside collection system.

In 2004 it was reported as having collected just under 18 tonnes.

This new scheme will enable different frequencies of collection and different types of areas (e.g. inner urban, rural etc) to be compared.

We don’t yet know how many tonnes of batteries we will be able to collect during the trials, what we will do is to monitor the amount we’re getting back from the different schemes and to assess how we can improve the collection rates and by so doing work out the most cost effective route for the UK to meet its targets.

Please note none of the proposed WRAP collection schemes will be able to accept leadacid batteries from automotive (vehicular) sources. These should be taken to your local Household Waste Recycling Centre for recycling.

WRAP is currently working with a limited number of local authorities and not for profit organisations across the UK to establish the most effective and efficient way to collect batteries for recycling.

There is a strong possibility that, as the WRAP trial begins to develop, the number of battery collection schemes will expand to cover a wider area of the UK.

There are a small number of organisations outside the WRAP trial who currently operate a batteries recycling scheme, although this is limited and mostly on a small scale.

Householders who are not currently covered by a batteries collection scheme but are keen to recycle their household batteries should contact their Local Authority to establish whether there is a batteries collection point at their Local Household Waste Recycling Centre as some (but not all) of these centres provide this service.

We don’t have a figure on the number of households who currently have access to a kerbside collection system for batteries; however survey work which was completed by WRAP about 12 months ago only identified 5 local authorities actually having kerbside collection schemes that were able to provide data on the quantities of batteries collected.

We do know however that several additional schemes have been started in the last twelve months.

Many more households have access to other forms of battery collection points located at civic amenity sites.

The cost of sorting and recycling household (and similar) batteries into the different chemistries and then sending the sorted batteries to recycling plants across Europe is quite high and this is currently seen as one of the main barriers to increased recycling.

Our research (MRUK October 2005) has shown that a third of people think they use too few batteries to bother recycling them and that it takes too much effort.

The UK lags behind most of our European neighbours with a collection rate of between 0.5% and 2% of waste batteries collected for recycling.

Other countries are achieving much higher rates (based on 2002 figure) of between 14% in Spain and 59% in Belgium.

There is currently little incentive on “producers” who place batteries on the UK market (which is not the same as manufacturers) to fund improvements until the targets in the forthcoming EU Batteries Directive are agreed and enshrined in law in the UK.

Other methods to collect batteries which will be trialled are likely to include “drop-off” and retailer take-back schemes.

Under such schemes end-users will be able to take their unwanted batteries to a network of collection points and deposit them in suitable containers.