Battery recycling.

I spot a government cock up approaching.

Back in 2006, we signed up as a nation for this.

The European Union has agreed the text of a law that will make recycling of batteries obligatory from 2008.

The directive will ban most batteries with more than a trace of the toxic chemicals cadmium or mercury.

It says a quarter of all used batteries must be collected by 2012 - rising to 45% by 2016 - and that at least half of them must be recycled.

It also says all batteries must be clearly labelled to show how long they will last, from 2009 onwards.

The compromise text was agreed by a delegation from the parliament and representatives of the member states on Tuesday, in a procedure known as conciliation.

All sounds rather good, can't really complain about collecting some batteries and stopping lots of chemicals going into rivers and the water table. But we seem to be lagging behind somewhat, as this shows.

The first collection targets set by the Directive, for 25% of batteries, will now have to be achieved by September 26, 2012.

The second target, for 45% of batteries, is set for September 2016.

Figures for 2002 put Britain's collection rate for batteries at just 0.5%. This compared to 59% for Belgium and 55% for Sweden.

Whoops! As we (as of 2002) only collect some 0.5% that's a lot of batteries to gather up. We would appear to be lacking behind our Euro friends "slightly"

Belgium 59% - Us 0.5%

Sweden 55% - Us 0.5%

Austria 44% - Us 0.5%

Germany 39% - Us 0.5%

The Netherlands 32% - Us 0.5%

France 16% - Us 0.5%(Ye gods, even the French are beating us!)

The new Directive requires accessible recycling points will have to be set up, with distributors taking spent batteries back for recycling free of charge to the last owner.

A series of "efficiency" targets has also been set for the reprocessing of the materials from collected batteries. These include recycling 65% of lead-acid batteries, 75% of nickel-cadmium batteries and 50% of other batteries collected, all targets calculated by weight.

These efficiencies targets are to be achieved no later than September 26, 2010.

Now we have 2 years, just two years to get this up and running across the UK. That is almost from scratch.
Anyone else think that we as a nation are going to miss the targets, what with government inaction since 2006?...Oh and we lack recycling plants and so we also face fines. See here.

And, although there are a handful of plants capable of processing the steel cases of batteries, none can deal with the hazardous chemicals they contain.

If ministers miss the 2012 deadline, they face daily fines – and a repetition of the 2002 fridge fiasco when they failed to set up fridge recycling ­facilities in time.

A spokesman for watchdog Waste Watch said: 'The government is leaving it very late. It needs to act now.'

The British Battery Manufacturers Association said it was 'unreasonable' to expect it to pay for collection bins.

But environment ministry Defra said: 'The Department fully intends to meet the collection targets. We have to get the new system right.'

Defra?! God help us. They say that "We have to get the new system right.", well setting up a system across the UK in just two years is going to take some doing. Never mind getting it right, try getting a system set up first off.

The Defra page is here

Check this doublespeak from Defra off the above page:

Q4. The UK has a poorly developed collection infrastructure for consumer batteries, currently collecting less than 2% of these when they become waste. How do you plan to meet the challenging Directive targets within four years of transposition date?

As part of the BREW (Business Resource Efficiency and Waste) programme being run by Defra, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) have been asked to undertake work to develop options for a cost effective UK battery collection infrastructure.

They answer the question by saying that they are looking at ways of answering that question....

Here is a solution for Defra, whilst I was on holiday abroad I noticed lots of plastic tubes with battery symbols on for the recycling of batteries.

Alas I fear that this is beyond the capacities of New Labour/Defra to manage, we will get fined and Gordon will engage in some busy dithering, nail biting and buck passing.

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