EU battery recycling plan 'will fail'

A European Union (EU) scheme aiming to recycle almost half of all batteries by 2016 will fail, according to two recycling companies.

Mopay and Envirofone say consumers are unaware of facilities to deal with unwanted mobile phones.

The warning followed an announcement from the European Battery Recycling Association (EBRA) which found that the number of recycled Lithium-ion batteries - used in mobile phones and notebook PCs – fell to 547 tonnes in 2006 compared with 635 in 2005.

The EBRA said in a statement that “people were habitually hoarding their mobile phones in their drawers”.

Simon Walsh, director of Mopay, said the EU scheme, which aims to recycle a quarter of all batteries by 2012 before aiming for 45 per cent by 2016, would be “difficult” unless the Government and phone retailers began to educate consumers on the importance of recycling.

“The [EBRA] figures outline that people aren’t aware of what they can do with their old mobile phones,” he told Computeractive. “Many still do not know that they can get money to recycle their mobile and therefore continue to hoard them in their drawers.

“The Government and mobile phone retailers must step in and begin educating people on such schemes before we are left with a mountain of waste mobile phones and a failed EU scheme,” he added.

Rob Fox, head of Envirofone, agreed. He told Computeractive: “There are many mobile recycling schemes around that give consumers money for their mobile phones yet people are losing out on this chance because they have not been educated.

“Consumers must be made aware that there are recycling facilities for mobi les before we end up with a toxic battery pile and a dangerous environment."

However, the European Commission said it was the responsibility of mobile phone producers to finance communication campaigns to persuade consumers to co-operate.

At a meeting last week Orsolya Csorba of the Environment Directorate-General said: "The directive contains an obligation to inform the consumers about chemical content, environmental impact and about where they can drop [the batteries]."

EBRA's 18 members recycled 3,050 tonnes of nickel-cadmium batteries in 2006, slightly less than a year earlier as these types of batteries have become less popular.