Car batteries - coming to a roadside verge near you
Car batteries - coming to a roadside verge near you
Author
Discussion

Willhire89

Original Poster:

1,415 posts

222 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
This morning the Environment Agency sent out an immediate effect order banning the recycling of car batteries due to the ABS content

I tried to drop off a couple of dead ones this morning and they were refused - they are furious as they have lots they have already taken in and there is now no way to send them upstream - this was a downstream vendor to EMR

I assume the council tips will stop taking them if they cannot move them on either in which case they are going to get dumped

InitialDave

13,613 posts

136 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
This sounds fishy, have you got a link to what they've put out?

Willhire89

Original Poster:

1,415 posts

222 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
No - I saw a copy of the email relayed on by EMR

vaud

55,700 posts

172 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
Are you sure? Google brings up nothing for environment agency or defra, nor on their press releases on their respective sites?

Willhire89

Original Poster:

1,415 posts

222 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
Only as sure as the guy at Larkinson Metal recyclers who turned them away - they got the email I saw from EMR at 7,30am

MDMA .

9,715 posts

118 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
EMR have invested heavily into lithium-ion battery recycling. What old car batteries do you have that contain lithium-ion?

Willhire89

Original Poster:

1,415 posts

222 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
These were just bog stock lead acid, What the guy said it was linked to was the ABS casings which cannot be recycled

InitialDave

13,613 posts

136 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
Willhire89 said:
These were just bog stock lead acid, What the guy said it was linked to was the ABS casings which cannot be recycled
Guidance on that already exists, I believe, it's to do with persistent organic pollutants in certain plastics, and how it affects the appropriate way to dispose of them.

biglove1772

163 posts

114 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
Willhire89 said:
These were just bog stock lead acid, What the guy said it was linked to was the ABS casings which cannot be recycled
Normal lead acid batteries are fine, the company are over reacting. It's a tiny % that are not, I've seen the guidance email.

MDMA .

9,715 posts

118 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
Willhire89 said:
These were just bog stock lead acid, What the guy said it was linked to was the ABS casings which cannot be recycled
Sorry. Read it as the ABS branded ones!

vaud

55,700 posts

172 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
Willhire89 said:
Only as sure as the guy at Larkinson Metal recyclers who turned them away - they got the email I saw from EMR at 7,30am
EMR?

Willhire89

Original Poster:

1,415 posts

222 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
vaud said:
Willhire89 said:
Only as sure as the guy at Larkinson Metal recyclers who turned them away - they got the email I saw from EMR at 7,30am
EMR?
https://uk.emrlocal.com/

vaud

55,700 posts

172 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
Doesn’t make sense with no wider press releases. Might be their way of saying they have no supply chain to dispose of them in a compliant way, so we will blame a directive from EA. That isnt publicly available.

My guess is most end customers would just accept this?


rodericb

8,138 posts

143 months

Wednesday 20th August
quotequote all
vaud said:
Doesn’t make sense with no wider press releases. Might be their way of saying they have no supply chain to dispose of them in a compliant way, so we will blame a directive from EA. That isnt publicly available.

My guess is most end customers would just accept this?
If people wishing to recycle batteries would like to pay handsomely for the privilege then I reckon they'll find a way to accept them. Then pay some unskilled labour to extract the lead to sell and chuck the remains into bales and store those bales in a leased warehouse somewhere and forget about them....

kambites

69,914 posts

238 months

Thursday 21st August
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Yes a ban on recycling them sounds very unlikely. It is possible that the EA have either tightened the rules around pollutants released while recycling them or banned a certain specific practices used in their recycling but neither of those things would mean they couldn't be recycled in other ways.

Whilst no level of stupidity would really shock me with modern politics, I would at least be mildly surprised if council run tips stopped taking them. Time will tell, though.

Riley Blue

22,524 posts

243 months

Thursday 21st August
quotequote all
Willhire89 said:
This morning the Environment Agency sent out an immediate effect order banning the recycling of car batteries due to the ABS content

I tried to drop off a couple of dead ones this morning and they were refused - they are furious as they have lots they have already taken in and there is now no way to send them upstream - this was a downstream vendor to EMR

I assume the council tips will stop taking them if they cannot move them on either in which case they are going to get dumped
If the EA did do this they forgot to add it to their website's latest news feed:

https://www.gov.uk/search/all?organisations[]=envi...


Gary C

13,957 posts

196 months

DaveCWK

2,204 posts

191 months

Thursday 21st August
quotequote all
If true, they will all just end up going overseas.
Like into the hands of this chap in Africa, who livestreams his battery recycling job on Tiktok of him chopping the cells with a machete to drain the acid, whilst wearing a pair of marigolds:



vaud

55,700 posts

172 months

Thursday 21st August
quotequote all
Gary C said:
Possible, though that is from 2024, so at odds with an immediate order outlined by the OP.

Hungrymc

7,175 posts

154 months

Thursday 21st August
quotequote all
Willhire89 said:
These were just bog stock lead acid, What the guy said it was linked to was the ABS casings which cannot be recycled
I think ‘Normal’ lead acids ones (wet ones) are all polypropylene.

ABS ones are unusual in automotive (well, they used to be anyway) maybe some of the ‘agm’ ones.