Battery Farming

The UK has dragged its feet when it comes to sustainably handling the vast number of batteries when the reach the end of their life. Libby Peake takes a look at the some of the WRAP supported initiatives aimed at solving the problem 

Spent batteries can be a significant source of environmental damage and a risk to human health as they are a major source of heavy metals including lead and cadmium, as well as other toxic chemicals. The threat used batteries pose, however, can be contained and used to human and environmental advantage as batteries – both rechargeable and non-rechargeable – are recyclable and recycling them enables the recovery of great amounts of reusable metals, including nickel, cobalt and silver.

Yet each year, over 600 million household batteries weighing 22,000 tonnes – equivalent to 110 Jumbo Jets – end up in landfills across the UK. And in comparison to its European neighbours, the UK has a rather dismal record when it comes to battery recycling: less than two per cent of waste batteries are collected for recycling in the UK, compared to an impressive 14 per cent in Spain and an astounding 59 per cent in Belgium.

Battery recycling is hindered in the UK as few reprocessing facilities exist in the country and the cost of sorting and shipping batteries to plants across Europe is very expensive. Nevertheless, the figures must improve as the European Union has agreed on a Batteries Directive that requires its member states to try and be like Belgium (at least when it comes to recycling batteries) and collect 25 per cent of all portable batteries for recycling by 2012 and 45 per cent by 2016.

With this in mind, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is currently conducting a series of trials designed to assess the cost effectiveness of different types of collection schemes and to facilitate the development of an infrastructure for battery recycling. The collection methods being tested include retailer take-back, community drop-off and kerbside collection schemes.

Take-back scheme

The EU Batteries Directive places a financial responsibility for the cost of collecting and recycling batteries on the retailers that put batteries on the market. With ‘producer’ accountability in mind, 33 stores owned by businesses including Argos, B&Q, DSG (including Currys and PC World) and Tesco are taking part in the take-back scheme trial, which began in autumn 2006 in Eastleigh and Swansea and in spring 2007 in Perth and Kinross. The stores have installed special collection tubes where shoppers can drop off their unwanted or used household batteries. By the end of November 2007, the take-back schemes had collected about 6.5 tonnes of batteries.

Community drop-off scheme

The London Borough of Camden, Cherwell District Council in Oxfordshire and Falkirk Council in Scotland are all taking part in community drop-off trials in which residents are encouraged to deposit used or unwanted batteries at special collection points. Camden is testing on-street containers exclusively, while Cherwell and Falkirk Councils are trying containers at a combination of locations, including retailers, schools, council offices and sports centres. The trials began in spring 2007 and by November 2007 had collected more than two tonnes of household batteries.

Kerbside collection scheme

By far the most extensive of WRAP’s trials, involving 12 partners in 13 local authority areas, is the kerbside collection scheme. Beginning in March 2006, an initial 350,000 households in a mixture of rural, urban and high-rise areas in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland began taking part in the trial. Participating households were given either cardboard boxes or sealable bags in which to store their unwanted batteries, which are collected through the existing recycling collection services. Some areas involved in the trials encountered problems as some householders either overfilled or forgot to seal their bags, but the provision of extra information has largely put an end to such difficulties.

By the end of November 2007, over 75 tonnes – more than 2.9 million household batteries – had been collected through the kerbside scheme. The collection rates have exceeded expectations and the partner organisations have seen positive responses to the successful experiment.

EMERGE Recycling in Manchester began a weekly collection of bagged batteries from 6,800 homes in Old Trafford and Stretford. According to Sebastien Serayet, Operations Manager, the collection zone was chosen for its heterogeneity: “We cover a compact and socially diverse urban area with high levels of deprivation.” Between 35 and 40 per cent of households in the area have been participating in the scheme and collections yielded 28,500 batteries after 18 months.

Antony Quinn, EMERGE’s Development Manager, says the company has not encountered any problems collecting batteries and the response from the public has been entirely positive: “People have been keen to participate and have been happy to be able to do it.” The trial has been such a success, in fact, that people from other areas of Manchester have been phoning up and asking to take part (but have, unfortunately, not been able to do so if they are outside the trial area) and EMERGE has been inspired to roll out the service to 700 area businesses.

Kerbside Calderdale in West Yorkshire, likewise, has seen a great response from residents taking part in its kerbside collection trial. The company collects used battery bags from 25,000 households on a fortnightly basis and it has amassed nearly 200,000 batteries since the start of the programme at a rate of 1 1/2 tonnes every four to five months.

Paul Brannigan, Kerbside’s Chief Executive, says: “Batteries seem to be popular because they’re easy enough to pop in the nice pink bags we provide.” He also says the organisation has not had any problems with people overfilling or forgetting to seal their nice pink bags. Occasionally, people try to put lead acid batteries out for collection, though these should be taken to Household Waste Recycling Centres. “It’s a rare problem,” Brannigan explains, “but we just have to keep an eye out for it.” And, as Brannigan points out, a much bigger problem, for Kerbside Calderdale and all organisations and households involved in the trials, is that the collection schemes (kerbside, take-back and drop-off alike) are due to end in March 2008.

Of course, the purpose of the trials is to help the Government identify the best mechanisms and most efficient methods of collecting batteries in line with the EU Batteries Directive target. WRAP’s market research in September and October 2005 indicated that more than nine out of ten people would recycle their batteries if they had a collection service from their home and that a small minority would prefer to take them back to a shop or to a drop-off centre. The results of WRAP’s trials so far are consistent with its previous market research and it looks as though kerbside collection of batteries is a very efficient system that can only benefit from supplemental take-back and drop-off schemes.