Batteries regulations take charge

New regulations will establish the legislative framework for the collection, treatment and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators in the UK.

The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009 complement the existing Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008, which set out the requirements for introducing new batteries onto the market as of September last year.

The Department for Business and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, have produced the new regulations.

Economic and business minister Ian Pearson said "These regulations will help reduce the environmental impact of batteries and accumulators, which contain potentially harmful material. We are committed to helping minimise the impact on the environment of this kind of waste and this is the latest measure to help us achieve a cleaner environment."

The Regulations implement the waste provisions of the Directive. They establish the scope of producer responsibility for batteries in the UK. Key elements include:

* requiring any persons placing batteries on the market to register as a producer of batteries, and report on waste batteries collected and sent for recycling;

* requirements for the treatment and recycling of waste batteries.

For portables:

* interim collection targets to assess progress towards the Directive’s targets of collecting waste portable batteries equivalent to 25% of sales by 2012 and 45% by 2016;

* producers will meet their responsibilities for collection and recycling by joining a Battery Compliance Scheme (BCS). BCSs will be approved by the relevant environment agencies of the UK; BCSs will also carry out publicity aimed at consumers informing them how they can return their waste household batteries for recycling;

* producers who put less than 1 tonne of portable batteries on the market will register with the environment agencies but will not have to fund collection, treatment and recycling;

* from February 2010, certain retailers of household batteries will have to collect in-store these batteries when they become waste.

For industrial and automotive batteries:

* the introduction of a ban on the disposal of waste industrial and automotive batteries by landfill or by incineration from 1 January 2010;

* requiring producers of industrial and automotive batteries to arrange, where necessary, separate collection and recycling of waste industrial batteries, and waste automotive batteries.