Low rate of recovery

Except for automotive batteries, Australia currently has a very low recovery rate. According to the most recent stocks and flows report, Australia’s recycling rate for non-automotive batteries is less than 3%. When put in the context of other OECD countries, highlights Australia poor performance as they lag far behind other OECD countries as can be seen in the figure below.

Figure 3. Battery recovery comparisons with OECD countries and or states

Product Stewardship in Australia has been delivering results for products such as computers and televisions, and mobile phones. Similar schemes have been operating Europe since 1991 and more recently in the US. We can build on the experience of these schemes to create an effective and efficient scheme for batteries to improve our performance in this important arena.