Commonly asked questions
Find out more about the WRAP's batteries programme
- What should I do if I want to recycle my household batteries but there is no WRAP trial or other collection scheme in my area?
- How many UK households have a battery recycling collection service at present?
- What are the barriers to battery recycling?
- How does the UK compare with the rest of Europe? Is the UK making good progress towards the EU batteries directive requirements?
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.
As teh expected date for the transposition of the Batteries Directive draws nearer, it is expected that the number of schemes will increase.
Back to topWe 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 since the start of the WRAP programme.
Many more households have access to other forms of battery collection points located at civic amenity sites.
Back to topWhat are the barriers to battery recycling?
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.
Back to topHow does the UK compare with the rest of Europe? Is the UK making good progress towards the EU batteries directive requirements?
The UK lags behind most of our European neighbours with a collection rate of between 2-3% of waste batteries collected for recycling.
Other countries are achieving much higher rates (based on 2002 figures) 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.
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