Call for a commitment to battery stewardship

The Australian Battery Recycling Initiative (ABRI) has called on Environment Minister Greg Hunt and all state and territory ministers to make a strong commitment to battery stewardship when they meet in Melbourne on 15 July.

The ministers are meeting to consider a recommendation to continue negotiations with industry on a voluntary stewardship scheme for the more than 400 million handheld batteries used in Australia each year. The ABRI supports continued discussions but also urges ministers to allow no more than a six-month period in which to reach agreement.

“We need to see more engagement and a stronger commitment to battery stewardship from leading manufacturers, including Energizer and Duracell,” said ABRI CEO Helen Lewis. “Without that commitment a voluntary program will not succeed, and there has been minimal support from these manufacturers to date.”

Legislation that requires manufacturers to take responsibility for battery recycling is already in place in the European Union, Japan, Taiwan, several Canadian provinces and many states in the US. In Australia, however, “state governments, councils, some retailers and consumers are taking responsibility for, and covering the cost of, recycling batteries”, said Lewis. “The big manufacturers should be playing their part, too.”

The ABRI states that Switzerland has the highest battery recycling rates in the world, at 74% as of 2012. Australia, meanwhile, lags way behind most developed countries at only 3%. Yet the ABRI believes Australian consumers are committed recyclers who are simply looking for a convenient solution for handheld batteries.

The Environment Minister last month announced changes to the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme to boost the recycling rate to 50% and to improve environmental and safety standards. According to Lewis, “The logical next step is to introduce an industry-funded national recycling scheme for handheld batteries.

“With the support of all Environment Ministers, work could commence immediately on the design of a regulatory model that would address industry concerns about potential free-riders,” Lewis said. “This could be achieved by either extending the scope of the TV and computer scheme to include batteries and other consumer electronics, or through stand-alone regulations.”