Valpak’s free battery collection network has been running since 2009 and to date we have collected 640,208,333 batteries for recycling, with an average of 123 battery boxes issued to businesses each week!
Our objective is to ensure that all consumers and businesses are disposing of their waste batteries correctly and that waste batteries are being recycled and diverted from landfill. By encouraging battery recycling, we also hope to reduce the number of fires at material recycling facilities, which are often caused by batteries (mainly lithium) that have been discarded of in general waste.
Business benefits
We know that many businesses are keen to do their bit for the environment and have CSR and environmental policies in place. Joining our network could certainly help to demonstrate to customers that the business takes preserving the environment seriously.
Did you know that Valpak’s battery collection service is free to all UK businesses and organisations? Not all schemes offer this service for free. We can supply and deliver 15kg battery boxes to your business for the collection of household portable batteries, such as AA, AAA. For multiple sites we can deliver in bulk for self-distribution.
Once the box is full we can be notified via phone or email and we will then arrange for the waste batteries to be collected by our accredited waste carrier. Once emptied, the box is then left with our customer for reuse and the batteries collected are treated in a compliant manner.
Environmental benefits
Batteries are hazardous to human health, wildlife and the environment if they end up in landfill, as they contain harmful chemicals, including acids and heavy metals such as lead and mercury, which leak into soil when they start to breakdown. Batteries that reach landfill are often damaged during the journey as a result of mechanical handling. This accelerates the escape of toxins.
By growing our battery collection network, which segregates batteries for dedicated collection, we hope to reduce the amount of waste batteries ending up in landfill. As the quantity of batteries being recycled increases the demand for raw materials is reduced. In turn this will help to preserve the earth’s finite resources, as the need for the mining and manufacture of virgin materials will also reduce.
Customer / staff benefits
Our battery collection network provides consumers and office staff with an accessible route for the safe disposal of their household waste batteries, as many high street stores and offices have recycling boxes or containers in place.
All battery recycling points can be found on Valpak’s recycling and waste information website: www.recycle-more.co.uk. Users can enter their postcode into the Bank Locator and select “Domestic Batteries”. The online tool will then bring up a map of all local battery recycling points and a list of site addresses.
By recycling their waste batteries, consumers are able to directly ensure that secondary raw materials are used for forward manufacturing. Some of the recovered materials can be used again in new battery manufacture, which helps lower production costs and ensures that competitively priced products are available for purchase.
Battery recycling also helps to minimise the cost of waste operations through household Council Tax and government funding, which is derived from the tax consumers pay. If batteries aren’t segregated, they will end up at material recovery facilities where they frequently cause fires that result in the costly replacement of vehicles, equipment and loss of other waste streams that are of value to Councils.
Furthermore, certain battery chemistries have to be removed from feedstock for the energy from waste process; therefore, reducing the number of waste batteries entering the process also helps to reduce costs for Councils.
Business considerations
If your business is interested in offering battery collections, handling, collection and storage guidelines will need to be adhered to. Valpak has produced a guide, which can be downloaded from our recycle-more website.
Your business should also notify the insurers if it plans to store waste batteries.
Join our network for FREE
If you would like to request one of our free battery collection boxes, please complete our online form, which is available on recycle-more.co.uk
Alternatively, please contact us on 03450 682 572 for more information.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this weblog represent those of the individual authors and not those of Valpak Limited or any other organisation.
