Wednesday, 24 March 2010

New battery regulations

Wirral's waste and recycling officer responded to the recent TTWK update with this useful information re batteries:

Small retailers “unaware” of the battery regs

One of the six batteries compliance schemes said, on the day that the regulations came into force, that it believed smaller retailers were “unaware” of the new regulations. Wastecare, which runs the BatteryBack compliance scheme with Veolia, said that "It is thought that many smaller battery retailers haven't claimed a BatteryCan, simply because they are unaware of the new regulations. Failure to comply could lead to an investigation from the Environment Agency resulting in fines and further enforcement.".

Meanwhile, environment minister Huw Irranca-Davies urged householders to take their used batteries to “local newsagents” and other retailers. A snap poll carried out by letsrecycle.com discovered that high street names and small retailers alike were not offering in-store take-back, and staff had no awareness of the regulations.

Under the regulations, all retailers - including online and mail-order stores - selling over 32 kilogrammes a year of portable batteries must provide free take-back, and advertise the fact that they do so.


No comments: