Washington to bring forth key changes to battery recycling regulations

By Paul Ploumis (ScrapMonster Author)

January 01, 2016 07:52:46 AM

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster):  The Washington State Department of Ecology is planning to revisit the state’s 25-year old regulations on vehicle car battery recycling. The proposed changes are expected to benefit vehicle battery recyclers in the state by way of fewer fees and regulations. It must be noted that the rules have not been updated since 1991.

According to Kyle Dorsey of Washington State Department of Ecology, the existing rule still has reference to agencies, phone numbers and addresses that no longer exist. He called for immediate correction of erroneous information.

As per current regulation, battery recyclers are required to approach State Department of Revenue for registration process. The information is then passed on to the Department of Ecology. This creates an unnecessary middleman, thereby complicating the entire procedure. The proposed changes eliminate the middleman, so that requests are directly processed by the Department of Ecology.

Presently, businesses are required to make a payment of $19 as annual fees to battery collector. The Department of Ecology proposes to eliminate this for-fee registration program. Instead businesses will be allowed to undergo one-time registration on the department’s webpage, free of any charge.

The revision of current regulations is expected to be in place by March this year. The Department of Ecology has issued notices regarding rule change to nearly 2,500 entities.

Incidentally, the state’s vehicle battery recycling program has recorded nearly 100% collection and recycling rate. Tonnage Reports for 2013 indicate that approximately 1.2 million batteries were collected during the entire year. The rates have continued to remain stable thereafter with minor variations on account of vehicle sale numbers or commodity prices.