04/03/2010 14:24:42

Cromwell Polythene has supplied the first 10,000 liner bags for the nation-wide BatteryBack battery recycling scheme, operated by Wastecare and Veolia.  The recycled bags will be used as liners in the specially designed collection canisters placed in civic amenity sites, schools, supermarkets and other retail outlets.  

The BatteryBack compliance scheme, which provides a range of eye-catching containers, in which consumers can safely dispose of their used batteries, has already gained 20,000 collection points throughout the UK, with ASDA, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Argos, Esso service stations and Robert Dyas among the first to participate in the new recovery programme.

Because legislation demands that liners are required for all but desk top containers and that they cannot be reused, Cromwell Polythene will carry stocks of the LDPE bags in their Yorkshire warehouse, ensuring that BatteryBack's own stocks can be replenished at short notice.  "We offer a similar stockholding service to those customers for whom timing of deliveries is critical," says Garth Imison, Cromwell's general manager.   

Robert Simpson, spokesperson for BatteryBack, says:  "Cromwell bags provide a perfect low cost solution for the safe collection of batteries.  The bags enable BatteryBack to meet the regulations, while also offering low prices to our customers."


BatteryBack was formed in 2008 in preparation for the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations, which are a response to the EU's Batteries Directive that requires 25 percent of all batteries placed on the market to be recycled by 2012, rising to 45 percent by 2016.  The UK currently recycles less than three percent of portable batteries, with more than 30,000 tonnes of batteries going to landfill every year.  

From February 2010 legislation requires retailers of batteries to offer a free battery recovery service to their customers.