BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
In March the Bicycle Association unveiled plans to launch a UK-wide battery collection and recycling service. Daniel Blackham speaks to Stephen Holt to see how the scheme is progressing.
This piece first appeared in the November edition of BikeBiz magazine – get your free subscription here
For the adoption of e-bikes to be seen as a truly sustainable alternative transport solution, battery disposal will have to become a smooth process and gain buy-in from the industry.
In March this year, the Bicycle Association (BA) announced its intention to set up a UK-wide collection and recycling service for bike batteries.
The perceived benefits for this include: simplicity at retail level, reducing cost and complexity for bike companies and a clear and convenient way for customers to return batteries.
“It’s been in the works for two years,” said Stephen Holt, retail trade manager at the BA.
“We were approached by Bosch, who asked us to look at what trade associations have done in other markets. We had meetings with the trade associations in Germany, France and the Netherlands, and we found some commonalities across their battery collection programmes.
“The trade associations in those markets – where they’ve been selling electric bikes for longer and in much bigger numbers than we have – had to get ready for the tsunami of end of life batteries coming their way.
“Each trade association sat in the middle of a collection and recycling partner, retailers that act as the collection network, and then all of the bike brands (known as Producers) who are financially and legally responsible for the safe recovery of what are classed as ‘industrial batteries’.
“We said ‘right, we think we can set up a programme like that’.”
Building blocks
Since the BA made its announcement in March, things have moved on significantly with a number of updates.
“What we’ve been doing since then is putting in place the different building blocks of setting up a national collection programme,” explained Holt.
“We’ve been engaged on the supply side with around 30 Producers – suppliers of bikes – all of the big bike brands. We’ve been talking to retailers: generalist retailers, big specialist retailers and single store independents.
“And we’ve been building a business model to hang all of this together.”
A key part of this process has been the appointment of European Recycling Platform UK (ERP) as the partner to set up and deliver this scheme.
“They [ERP] are incredibly helpful,” said Holt. “They’re involved in several, different verticals which involve the collection of hazardous waste. And as strange as it seems to us, bike batteries are classed as hazardous waste.
“It’s one of the reasons why if you ask a courier to go and collect a battery from somewhere, they charge you an exorbitant fee.”
ERP has played a key role in helping the BA understand what the parameters are for retailers to consider as a part of this.
“What does the fireproof bin need to be? How big does it need to be? What data do we need to collate from a retailer in order to have a correct picture of their business? Opening times, access restrictions? What batteries do they have at the moment etc etc,” said Holt.
“They’re up and down the high streets of the UK on a daily basis collecting batteries. So it’s quite good for us that we’ve got a partner, a third party, where all of that collection, storage, transport and ultimately recycling, gets looked after.
“Over time, we want to report on the total collection amount that we’re picking up from the UK bike industry. We’re talking to ERP about what appropriate targets would be at the moment.”
North West trial
The BA is currently undergoing a trial of the collection programme in the North West at the moment where ERP are visiting 45 retailers.
As part of this, the retailer receives a UN rated fireproof drum to store the batteries. The drum contains a product called Vermiculite that means it won’t go up in flames – that’s provided to them free of charge.
ERP also provides some best practice storage and handling tips.
When ERP are visiting those retailers they are also collecting any batteries the retailer needs to be removed, as well as help to inform the BA’s planned national launch next year.
“There is some urgency to this work because expired batteries are hazardous,” said Holt.
“For retailers, because there’s no solution, they are storing batteries in their workshops – which is obviously not ideal.
“And some of them don’t know what they need to do with the batteries at the moment.
“They might phone one of their suppliers, and that supplier will then have to go and collect that single battery from that retailer, probably at great cost.”
Funding and engagement
For any scheme like this to succeed it requires buy-in from all stakeholders in the industry.
Brands, aka the Producers, retailers and consumers all need to be pulling in the same direction.
A crucial contributor to its success will be funding.
Consumers should not be expected to foot the bill and neither should retailers – especially at a time when they face significant challenges in other areas.
“There will be no charge for retailers to participate,” said Holt.
“They do have costs in helping administer this programme as they’ve got to store the batteries, talk to the customers, make the calls to ERP etc.”
“The way the funding works will mirror what happens in other markets. It’s the Producers who fund a programme like this.”
According to Holt, the Producers are already incurring costs because they’re dealing in small numbers and it’s quite expensive for them to do this.
“They’ve got to go and find a supplier like ERP – which we’ve done on behalf of the whole sector,” explained Holt.
“Producers are saying to us ‘this is great, because I haven’t got time to go and procure a service like this’.
“We’re giving economies of scale and setting it up so that in the future when we’ve got 1000s of batteries that are going to need to be collected, we’ve got an efficient national programme that does that.
“It’s one of those rare things where the retailer’s are saying ‘yes, please’. The suppliers are saying ‘yes, please’. And we’ve got a partner in ERP and the Bicycle Association where we were really confident in how successful this programme will be.”
When the BA spoke to trade associations in other markets, one of the main questions was ‘what are the key things that ensure the success and longevity of this programme?’
“The one thing that came through with all of them was ‘extensive Producer engagement’,” said Holt.
“When we look at the 30 Producers that we’re talking to, we think that they account for 90% of the total electric bike volume in what we call a specialist sector. That’s higher than any of the other trade associations that we spoke to.
“So we’re very, very confident that this programme will be a success for that measure, alone.”
Looking ahead
With the trial underway and demand for this type of scheme increasing daily, plans are already afoot for the BA to expand this as quickly as it can.
“We will ask for expressions from any retailer in the UK to help us form this national collection network before Christmas,” said Holt.
“Once we’ve got our first group of retailers, we’ll begin the process of setting them up as a collection point.
“Drum deliveries and first collections will then be in Q1 and Q2 of next year.”
What the BA doesn’t know yet is how big the collection network will be. This is something Holt and his colleagues are particularly interested to find out about.
“Germany gives us an indication as there are 2,800 bike shops and 1,800 of them are in the battery collection network,” he said.
“So we think, over time, the network might be 1000 to 1200 bike shops in the UK. In year one, maybe 250 to 500 and then it will grow over time.”
